Moors suffered their third successive away defeat of the new season as Darlington took the honours from a hugely competitive encounter at Blackwell Meadows.

Graeme Lee’s men will feel hard done by on an afternoon which saw them denied two really good shouts for a penalty, while The Quakers earned their victory thanks to Jack Maskell’s first goal for the Club on the quarter-hour mark.

Moors were forced to shuffle their pack for the short trip across County Durham with Brad James missing with a hamstring injury. Former Boro keeper Henry Popple was drafted in and made his debut, while Rob Ramshaw returned after his own injury.

It was Lee’s men who were on the front foot during the early stages. Isaac Fletcher almost created the opener on just three minutes when he stole the ball on the left of the home side’s penalty area, but Corey McKeown just couldn’t get on to his cross.

However, Darlington went in front on 16 minutes when Maskell got a run on his man to meet a hung-up corner from the right with a powerful header which flashed past Popple for 1-0.

Popple had to get down well to save from Will Hatfield’s low drive to prevent further joy for Darlington, while Reece Staunton’s whipped free-kick was well dealt with by home keeper Pete Jameson.

McKeown had a golden opportunity to equalise on 30 minutes when Fletcher again raided down the left and sent a cross into the front post, but McKeown couldn’t make the right connection and Darlington survived.

Ramshaw felt sure he should have had a penalty ten minutes before the break when he stole in behind to collect Staunton’s chipped pass when he was upended by Jameson, but the referee waved away the appeals.

The Darlington stopper then got down to his left to make an excellent save after Glen Taylor had forced Callum Ross’ left-wing cross towards goal and McKeown just couldn’t force home the rebound.

Olly Dyson perhaps had the biggest sight of goal during the first half when Taylor’s deep cross was nodded down to the arriving full-back on the edge of the box only for him to drag his shot across goal and wide.

Moors tried to force the pace in the second half but it developed into a scrappy affair with fewer clear cut chances for either side.

Dan Rowe came close to levelling midway through when he stormed out of defence to let fly from 25 yards, but his left-footed drive flashed a yard too high.

At the other end, Popple had to make another tidy save down to his right from Will Hatfield’s dipping drive, making sure to push the ball well clear of goal with home forwards following in.

On 83 minutes a challenge from Dyson was punished by the award of a penalty to Darlington, despite protests that the challenge was outside of the box. It mattered little, however, because Popple got down to his left to save superbly from Maskell.

That spurred Lee’s men on and they looked to have unlocked the door in the fourth minute of added time when Fletcher slalomed through the challenges into the box before going down under a challenge from Tom Lees. However, the referee decided Fletcher was guilty of diving and instead showed a yellow card.

Fletcher could have prodded Moors level with the last kick when he got in on the end of a deep corner from the left but his effort on the stretch crashed into the side netting.

Full Time: Darlington 1 Moors 0

Darlington: Jameson, Hedley, Lees, Forbes, Barrow, Hatfield, Flint, Nelson (Rivers 61), Cornish (Payne 76), Salkeld, Maskell.
Subs not used:

Booked: Barrow (51), Hatfield (86)

Moors: Popple, Dyson, Bartley, Rowe, Staunton (Myers 46), Ross, Howard (Siziba 58), McKeown (Mondal 73), Ramshaw (Harris 73), Fletcher, Taylor.
Sub not used: Ledger.

Booked: Ross (36), Dyson (83), Fletcher (90)

Referee: Robert Claussen

Attendance: 1,879 (195 Moors)