Darlington 1 Farsley 1

For the second time in five days Darlington dropped points, quite literally this time.

This time manager Martin Gray felt the referee was culpable after conceding a late equaliser that meant his side drew 1-1 with Farsley.

On Saturday Quakers could only blame themselves for losing 2-1 to ten-man Droylsden despite leading at the break.

Last night at Heritage Park, however, they were leading 1-0 thanks to Terry Galbraith until the 88th minute when Peter Jameson fumbled a cross into his own net.

Gray raged at referee Dean Chapman, saying Jameson had been fouled when collecting a cross at the end of crunch clash with a side expected to be in the midst of the promotion race at the end of the season.

“The referee made a big mistake, it was the most important decision of the game,” said a frustrated Gray.

“I’ve not spoken to him yet, you don’t get any joy with them, but those are the decisions he’s got to get right and he’s got to protect goalkeepers. Their lad came in and knocked the ball out of Peter’s hands.

“The referee has got to be on the ball and make the decision. He didn’t do his job and it’s cost us two points.”

The result takes Darlington up a place to ninth, while Gray was otherwise pleased with his team’s performance and believed he got the reaction he wanted.

He said: “That was our best performance over 90 minutes since we beat Spennymoor. We were solid, they didn’t work my keeper and I thought the game-plan was good. The shape, our discipline was good, we had lots of chances, especially at set-pieces, the deliveries were excellent.

“I was disappointed on Saturday and the players were left in no uncertain terms, but the good thing about players is that we always get a good response in the next match.

“Farsley are a very good team, a good footballing team, the best team we’ve played this season and they’ll be up there at the end of the season.

“They moved the ball quickly, but didn’t really hurt us in the final third. We defended our box well.”

Aside from Adam Mitchell stealing the ball off dithering centre-back James Riley and breaking into the penalty area before losing his footing, the early stages were bereft of goalmouth incident.

Farsley were the aggressors initially. While their defence easily dealt with Quakers’ long passes from the back, the visitors’ quick passing and movement made inroads but Jameson was rarely troubled.

Darlington improved as the half wore on with the energetic Mitchell was central to most of the team’s attacking play.

His slide-rule pass played into the six-yard box was cleared for a corner just before Stephen Thompson could get a toe to it, and then his corner was turned over the bar at close-range by Gary Brown.

In the second half, after collecting a Terry Galbraith throw, Thompson saw a thunderous shot on the turn palmed away by Tom Taylor and, seemingly energised by the glimpse of goal, the Darlington forward suddenly became more involved.

He burst into life and it was not long before he delivered a cross for Galbraith whose back-post header put Darlington ahead on the hour.

Thompson glared at the main stand, perhaps seeking out detractors that have criticised his form, or he could just as likely to have been seeking out Gray, who was serving the fourth game of a six-match touchline ban.

It was almost 2-0. Farsley right-back Aaron Hardy cleared off the goal-line following a free-kick near the corner flag won by Graeme Armstrong, but it was the visitors who got the next goal.

Hardy's cross from the right was spilled by Jameson and despite Darlington’s protestations the goal stood.

In the dying moments substitute Amar Purewal’s shot was deflected and Taylor did tremendously well to get a foot to it.

Seconds later the final whistle blew and Jameson was the first off the pitch, head down as he headed for the tunnel.

Gray added: “When the game is tight it needs a second goal to kill it off. We almost got a winner when the keeper made a summer from Amar, but I think it was down to more luck than judgement.

“It was a really strong performance overall with lots of positives apart from that one mistake by the referee.”