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 on Tuesday 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 while Quakers were thanful for taking their chances as opposed to the hosts who enjoyed many in the opening period.

But it was Quakers who scored first when they opened the scoring 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.

At the same end of the pitch where he scored from the edge of the penalty box last season, the ex-Torquay midfielder blasted left-footed into the bottom corner from the same distance.

But the hosts reacted well and immediately put Darlington under pressure as they held the majority of possesion for the remainder of the first half.

The Cumbrians' best two chances fell to Mark Winstanley, who headed accross 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-lentgh 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 to be one of many out injured, tested the 19-year-old who, by half-time, had more saves to make than in the entire match at Rushden on Saturday.

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 as referee Harry Webb, who'd spent the half awarding a succession of strange decisions, gave a highly dubious penalty to the Cumbrians.

Gary Pearson was adjudged to have felled Foran, but the decision was so ludicrous almost every member of the Darlington side, except Ian Clark and Neil Wainwright, surrounded the Rotherham whistle-blower to register their disgust and Ford entered the referee's notebook for overstepping the mark. After the complaints were waved away, Foran stepped-up to convert in injury time.

The match was a much more even affair during the second 45 minutes with the hosts not creating nearly half as much they did in the first half, while Darlington took two of the few chances they created, and they didn't take long to level the scores.

It took Quakers just eight minutes of the second period to level the scores through Clark who turned nealy 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.

The killer third goal came eight minutes from time and Darlington never looked in too much danger from then on although Carlisle came close to grabbing a goal back when Stephen Halliday hit the outside of the post and then Peter Murphy fired wide from 18 yards.

The game finished with Darlington down to ten men as Simon Betts was unable to continue having suffered an injury when Quakers had utilised all of their substitutes, but a professional performance, in a match refereed by an official who had a poor game, against a dogged Carlisle side, earned Tommy Taylor's side all three points.

The win was certainly eventful, but Quakers didn't care as it was Darlington's first away League victory since August's win at Hartlepool.

Read more about the Quakers here.