Darlington completed a satisfactory Easter double with yesterday's convincing win at home to Halifax which sent the visitors into the Nationwide Conference for the second time in their history.

Coming two days after a 2-1 win at Hull, Darlington were in control for the entire game and had the chances to reach double figures as Ian Clark notched his second and third goals of the weekend, though the visitors' tame performance did contribute to Quakers' dominance.

From the kick-off the Shaymen knew they were battling against the odds to maintain their League status, but conceding two goals inside the first quarter-of-an-hour and being reduced to ten men shattered any confidence they may have had.

Ian Clark put Quakers ahead and then doubled their tally with a twice-taken penalty.

Despite their players not being paid last week, because of an error by Barclays Bank, 5-0 was Darlington's best result since Tommy Taylor took over in October.

The manager said: "We played some good balls down the side of them today and had some good, honest people out there who were prepared to turn balls into good crosses and get in shots and headers."

After the bright opening the remainder of the half became a tepid affair, although Darlington did force several chances with Craig Liddle Glenn Naylor and Mark Ford all going close.

The third goal could demonstrated why Halifax are bottom of the table and could only have been conceded by as poor a side as the Shaymen.

After an hour, full-back Mark Jules managed to concede a corner by blasting the ball over the by-line from near the half-way line, and from the resulting flag-kick he failed to clear the ball off the goal-line after Mark Convery's flag-kick was nodded out of the keeper's grasp by Barry Conlon.

Four minutes later Mark Ford delivered the knock-out blow when he finished very neatly after meeting Clark's pull-back.

Darlington hit the fifth of the game when Mark Sheeran got on the scoresheet with an impressive looping header from a tight angle after getting on the end of Brian Atkinson's cross, but the youngster should have doubled his tally in injury time.

Read more about the Quakers here.