Darlington weathered a dominant first half Carlisle performance, a shocking pitch and a poor refeering display, to claim only their second League away win of the season with a hard-earned victory at Brunton Park last night.
It was Carlisle's first defeat of the year, but Darlington deserved the three points for keeping their cool in the face of a very physical United team, and Quakers were thankful for taking their chances whereas their hosts missed a hatful in the opening period.
But it was Quakers who scored first after just 55 seconds with Mark Ford notching a repeat of a goal he scored last season at Brunton Park in Quakers' 2-0 win
The former Torquay midfielder blasted home left-footed into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, but Carlisle responded well and immediately put Darlington under pressure.
The Cumbrians' best two chances fell to Mark Winstanley, who headed across the face of goal, and Stuart Green whose 25-yard thunderbolt forced Keith Finch, who kept his place in goal because Andy Collett failed a fitness test, into a full-length save.
Finch again had to be alert when shots from Lee Andrews and Richie Foran, who played despite manager Roddy Collins claiming the Irish forward was injured.
With half-time approaching, and Carlisle's attacks waning, the hosts grabbed the goal their possesion had warranted, but it came in very controversial circumstaces. Referee Harry Webb, who'd spent the half awarding a succession of strange decisions, gave a highly dubious penalty to the Cumbrians. Ford entered the referee's notebook for overstepping the mark with his complaints before Foran converted.
The match was a much more even affair during the second 45 minutes, and it took Quakers just eight minutes of the second period to level the scores through Clark who turned neatly six yards from goal, following a trademark Conlon flick-on, and fired right-footed past Peter Keen.
Before Darlington scored the third, killer goal, Mr Webb made another puzzling decision when he deemed Stuart Green to be worthy of only a booking when he'd clearly kicked Brian Atkinson while the Darlington midfielder lay on the floor.
Craig Liddle, who scored his first of the season on Saturday, doubled his season's tally with another header as he connected with an excellent cross from Neil Maddison.
Read more about the Quakers here.
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