Moors fell to a heavy defeat at the hands of a ruthless Darlington side in National League North at The Brewery Field on Saturday.

Max Howells opened the scoring in the first half, before a brace from Cedric Main gave the visitors a comfortable cushion going into the later stages. Jack Maskell finished off the victory with seven minutes left, finding the bottom left corner.

An early chance from Corey McKeown almost saw Moors go in front 17 minutes in, as Mackenzie Heaney’s cross-field ball found the winger on the left-hand side. He drove goalwards, before dinking an effort over Rory Watson, only to see it drop wide of the mark.

It was Darlington who broke the deadlock, however. Max Howells burst into the box from the right-hand side, before getting past a Moors man in the area and thumping home with a powerful strike into the roof of the net.

Tom Broadbent went close when his prodded effort tested Rory Watson in the visitors’ goal, but The Quakers keeper managed to guide the strike wide at full stretch.

Things went from bad to worse just nine minutes into the second half when the referee awarded a penalty to Steve Watson’s men. Main stepped up to take the spot kick and fired home into the bottom left corner, despite Brad James diving the right way.

Main made it 3-0 just after the hour mark, doubling his tally. A pinpoint cross from Will McGowan found the number 10 at the right-hand post, where he hit a downward header in off the root of the woodwork for Darlington’s third.

The Quakers rounded off the three points with seven minutes of normal time remaining. The ball was pushed into the path of Maskell, who thumped a first-time effort from the edge of the area right into the bottom left corner of the net.

It would have been five for the visitors with 88 minutes on the clock when Tom Tweedy’s free-kick found the head of Elliot Forbes, but his header flew just over the bar.

Full Time: Moors 0 Darlington 4

Moors: James, McKeown (Salkeld 62), Broadbent (Sutcliffe 72), Beals, Hill, Dyson (Williams 78), Hancox (Sharples 67), Mondal (Nouble 78), Ramshaw, Heaney, Taylor
Subs not used: Barron, Hughes

Booked: Taylor (22), Ramshaw (65).

Darlington: Watson, Forbes, Lees, Barrow (Hedley 79), Howells (Cornish 90), Platt (Griffiths 86), Stanton, Tweedy, McGowan (Allan 81), Maskell, Main.
Subs not used: McGrath, Myers-Smith, Rutledge.

Booked: McGowan (36).

Referee: Ben Tomlinson

Attendance: 2,111 (695 Darlington)

Written by Noah Betts