Hull City 1, Darlington 2 - It wasn't pretty and it was rarely entertaining, but for the first time since records began, or at least that's how it felt, Darlington are this morning able to savour a weekend victory.

In ten previous games Darlington had failed to win and on each occasion had rarely looked like doing so and again Quakers, like Hull, failed to impress with Tommy Taylor's side having just three shots at goal all afternoon, while the visitors' back-line easily snuffed-out anything Hull could muster.

There have been moments during the miserable run when Darlington looked unlikely to win another game all season so Quakers let out a huge sigh of relief when the full-time whistle sounded.

Although a point was needed to secure Darlington's League status, because of Halifax's dire points total relegation was never a genuine threat.

However, Darlington really needed to win if only to restore some confidence and morale at the club after another troubled week in which the players didn't receive their wages due to an error by Barclays Bank.

With the winless run now ended, Taylor admitted a weight had been lifted off the team. He said: "It's nice to get that run out of the way.

"We're safe now and I'm pleased for the boys because it's not something you want to have and now it's out of the way I want us to be unbeaten for the rest of the season.

"We defended well and got the ball forward in good areas. We created four good chances, Clarky should've scored two. Defensively we looked strong and really worked hard.

"For the last few weeks we haven't had the right people in the right roles. It's hard for a centre-midfielder to do the kind of runs a striker has to but a centre-foward is always looking to go in behind people but today we had two forwards who can make the kind of runs we've been missing.

"We've got Halifax on Monday and they are going to be working their socks off and we're going to have to match them."

Over the last two months Quakers have been stuck in a rut of poor form which has seen them lose six of the ten games and slide down the League faster than a Darlington player storming out of a fans' forum.

Out of form and out of luck, Quakers were up a creek without a striker, but on Saturday Taylor was able to pair Glenn Naylor and Barry Conlon for the first time and come 4.45pm three points were in the bag.

The first goal was created by Naylor and converted by Conlon, but it would be unfair to herald the presence of the two strikers as the sole reason for Darlington's victory as Quakers had several star performers with Craig Liddle and Adam Reed particularly impressive while Mark Ford epitomised Quakers' battling spirit with a non-stop performance in midfield.

It took Darlington 18 minutes to manage an attempt at goal but it was worth the wait as Conlon's header from 12 yards put Quakers ahead although Hull's Justin Whittle had more involvement in the strike than he would've liked.

Naylor's left-wing cross was sliced into the air by Whittle and with Paul Musselwhite off his line, Conlon nodded the ball over the keeper to mark his return to action after a month on the sidelines with his ninth of the season.

Within the next ten minutes Darlington had two close escapes with Reed heading across his own goal and then keeper Chris Porter miss-kicked a tame backpass but thankfully for him, the ball rolled wide of goal.

At the end of a tame first half in which the hosts had forced the greater number of chances, Hull came close to pulling level but Adrian Caceres' backward header struck the bar.

The second period continued at a slow pace with neither side seeing much sight of goal although the Tigers' Ryan Williams was unlucky to see his right-foot volley fly past an upright.

Hull's equaliser came via striker Gary Alexander who beat Quakers' offside trap and finished neatly after collecting a David Norris through-ball, and the goal didn't leave Taylor very happy.

"Hodgy didn't close his man down quick enough and Reedy let his man run-off into space but Reedy played ever so well this afternoon and he's only made one mistake so I'm not going to moan," he said.

At this point, and considering recent form, a point for the Quakers would have been satisfactory, but Ian Clark had other ideas and 11 minutes from time he collected an Adam Rundle pass, after good work by the teenager, and tucked the ball under Musselwhite.

Five minutes later Clark could've scored again but he allowed the keeper to save. Perhaps Clark had realised winning a game and scoring three away from home would've been greedy.

While attractive football was rarely prominent in Darlington's side, they put in 90 minutes of hard graft and for that alone Quakers got what they deserved

Read more about the Quakers here.