Salford City 2 Darlington 0

With promotion the aim for both parties, Darlington’s display was disappointing and they were defeated on a big occasion blighted by lack of discipline.

Sound familiar?

For Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Salford City, read last May’s 2-0 defeat to Ramsbottom United.

Half of that Ramsbottom team and its management have recently decamped to Salford and Saturday’s fiery meeting with a promotion rival shared the hallmarks of last season’s play-off semi-final.

This time it was Alan White and Adam Mitchell who saw red as a below-par Quakers saw their 16-match unbeaten run come to an end, suffering only their third defeat of the season, while manager Martin Gray is heading for another touchline ban.

He was sent to the stands during a manic period midway through the second half when referee Barry Cropp sent off White after giving him his second booking, both for dissent, punished Gray for his sarcastic applause by sending him to the stand and within minutes asked assistant manager Brian Atkinson to join him for something said out of turn.

Cropp was not popular in the Darlington dressing room and hadn’t been since before the game began.

“I’m disgusted,” fumed Gray. “He made a comment before the game because we weren’t out on time, saying ‘that’s one way to piss off a referee before the start’. He made the comment to my substitutes.

“I’d been trying to give the last part of my team talk when the referee opened the door and smashed it into my back, and then he made that comment.

“He’s booked eight or nine players, sent off two players and two members of staff, in a game where there wasn’t a bad tackle. It became all about the referee. Absolutely dreadful decisions he made.”

On White’s dismissal, Gray added: “We know what Alan is about, but it’s the first time he’s been sent off this season for dissent. He made a comment during play, we had the ball when Alan made a comment and because it was continuous the referee gave him another yellow.

“I can’t blame Alan, that’s his passion, that’s the way he is. He didn’t swear, he just said ‘did you miss that one’?

“You’ve got to referee the game better than that, you can’t just throw red and yellow cards around. It wasn’t good enough.”

Quakers’ concerns about Cropp intensified early on when he failed to send off Salford goalkeeper Jay Lynch, despite him pulling down Nathan Cartman outside the penalty area and denying a goalscoring opportunity.

But Cropp should not be blamed for Darlington’s underwhelming performance.

They did not have one strong spell in the game, no periods when they pressed the hosts, little to excite the excellent away support and too many players were nowhere near their best.

Without the injured Amar Purewal to hold the ball up, long balls to Nathan Cartman and Graeme Armstrong were futile, easily dealt with by defenders Paul Linwood and Steve Howson as Salford recorded their first clean sheet in ten games.

Gray admitted: “Throughout the 90 minutes we didn’t really get hold of the game and that was disappointing because in any game you need a period of possession to get yourselves high up the pitch. We didn’t do that today as a team, that’s frustrating.”

Cartman had a great chance, his shot saved by Lynch, then White put a close-range header wide after a corner.

Those misses proved costly when Tom Portas gave the ball away, Gary Brown missed a challenge and that allowed left-winger Phil Dean, one of the ex-Ramsbottom players, to cross for Danny Webber to break the deadlock on 32 minutes.

Lynch fumbled a Terry Galbraith effort early in the second half, but there continued to be little between the teams, Salford only opened up Darlington late on once White was off.

He walked just after the hour, ten-man Darlington staying in the fight until the end.

Cartman’s second good chance saw him put a free header straight at the keeper after Mitchell’s cross from deep, but by then Webber had missed two opportunities to add a second.

The second goal came deep into injury time, Salford exploiting acres of space on the counter-attack to with Dean crossing for sub Sam Madeley to score.

It was all too much for Mitchell, red-carded for foul and abusive language, and there was bother in the stands too with Salford complaining of signage and toilets being damaged.

Frustrated fans also complained of a lack of adequate toilet facilities, there were lengthy queues at the one food kiosk available, programmes were sold out by 2pm, and supporters reported waiting up to 45 minutes at the bar, all of which made for an unwelcoming experience for many.

It was as if Salford were not prepared for the larger than usual gate, though there was clearly more in the ground that the official gate of 902.

Once the kiosk closed, there was an announcement that supporters would permitted to re-enter the ground should they wish to visit a nearby shop at half-time.

Bet Nicky Butt never heard that one at Old Trafford. He was the only one of the famed Class of ’92 in attendance

While losing to Ramsbottom last May was a season-ending punch to the ribs, Saturday’s was no more than a bloodied nose, not damaging enough to cause irreparable damage.

Quakers remain in a better position than league leaders Salford, six points behind with five games in hand, and there is still a long way to go yet.

Goals: Webber (32, 1-0), Madeley (90, 2-0)

Bookings: Thompson (16, foul); J Lynch (22, foul); Portas (21, dissent), White (23, dissent); Seddon (45, foul); Brown (50, foul), Hulme (74, time wasting), Jameson (84, foul), Dean (89, foul)

Sendings off: White (62, second booking), A Mitchell (90, foul and abusive language)

Referee: Barry Cropp 4

Attendance: 902

Entertainment: ***

Salford City (4-4-2): Lynch 5; Coo 6 (Chadwick 75), Howson 8, LINWOOD 8, Neville 7; Hulme 6, Burton 6, Jarrett 7, Dean 8; Webber 7 (Spencer 89), Seddon 6 (Madeley 89). Subs (not used): Dunn, Morning

Darlington (4-4-2): Jameson 6; Brown 5, White 4, Hunter 6, Watson 6; Thompson 5 (Hatch 71), Scott 5 (A Mitchell 51, 4), Portas 5, Galbraith 5; Cartman 6, Armstrong 5 (Dowson 64, 6). Subs (not used): Bell (gk), Mota

MAN OF THE MATCH

PAUL Linwood – The centre-back did his job in ensuring few of Darlington’s long balls were won by Armstrong