It's official. Darlington are fighting to preserve their League status.

Any hopes of a hassle-free end-of-season run-in were well and truly crushed last night as Quakers went down to a disappointing 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Boston United. Mark Greaves' first-half strike was enough to send Quakers home pointless and they are now just four points above the relegation zone.

Mick Tait's side have just eight games to secure Third Division survival and last night's defeat at York Street will have done little to lift the spirits of a beleaguered Quakers, who have now recorded just one win in their last 12 league outings.

Tait now faces his ultimate test as caretaker boss as he bids to instill some much-needed belief in a side clearly low on confidence and staring relegation in the face.

Darlington have won only eight times this season, the lowest in the division and matched only by third bottom Bristol Rovers.

"It was an awful result for us, although I thought we deserved a lot better," said Tait.

"The commitment was there, we just had five bad minutes at the beginning of the game.

"We created plenty of chances in the game, but we were made to pay for a poor start. We can't afford to do this. They got their goal from a set-piece but apart from that they didn't look like causing us any problems."

There were two changes from the side which was held at home by Exeter at the weekend with Ryan Valentine returning from suspension and Jim Corbett earning his first start since arriving on loan from Blackburn.

Wingers Neil Wainwright and Richard Hodgson were the players sacrificed and they had to settle for places on the bench.

Boston included former Quakers winger Mark Angel in their line-up, while former Feethams striker Peter Duffield was named on the subs bench.

It was the home side, bottom of the league at kick-off, who looked the brighter of the two sides in the opening stages and Quakers' keeper Andy Collett was at full stretch to tip wide Simon Weatherstone's toe poke with just four minutes on the clock. However, Collett could do little from the resulting corner as defender Greaves rose to head home inside the six-yard-box.

Boston had previously gone 291 minutes without a goal. Last night it took them just five after a disastrous start for the visitors.

Midfielder Ashley Nicholls was unlucky not to draw his side level soon after the restart when he volleyed just wide from Barry Conlon's knock down.

And it was Nicholls who was involved in Quakers' next attack when he was played in by skipper Craig Liddle after a strong run before squaring for Corbett, who saw his low effort blocked by the feet of Paul Bastock in the Boston goal.

Liddle was the next to test the visitors' resolve when he glanced a header just wide from Simon Betts' right-wing cross.

At the other end defender Matt Clarke was spared his blushes when his back-pass fell short of Collett, who did just enough to block Paul Ellender's goal attempt.

Even with ten minutes of the first half remaining fans were already checking their watches and that really summed up a match to forget. With little over a minute played after the break Collett came to his side's rescue to deny Angel with a block in the heavy fog which had suddenly descended upon York Street.

Weatherstone could have doubled his side's advantage when he broke clear, only to fire wide with just Collett to beat.

Conlon and Liddle both came close to equalising but without success, while Danny Mellanby turned his marker superbly in the 66th minute only to see his low effort flash across the face of goal.

As the weather began to deteriorate so did the game, with chances at a premium, although it was the visitors who looked the more likely scorers, with Corbett in particular looking dangerous going forward. And it was the on-loan forward who almost embarrassed Bastock when his cross-shot almost trickled in at the back post.

Quakers continued to press in search of an equaliser but to no avail as Boston held on to claim a much-needed three points.

For several weeks Quakers have been on the fringes of the relegation battle. Now Tait's team has been sucked deep into a dogged battle which begins on Saturday with a tough game at third-placed Scunthorpe United.

And it doesn't get any easier after that with a home game against promotion-chasing Bury the following week.

Result: Boston United 1 Darlington 0.

Read more about the Quakers here.