After drawing nine consecutive blanks, Barry Conlon finally brought his scoring drought to an end, and in York City he picked the perfect opposition against which to put the ball in the net for the first time since September.

The team which sold him to Darlington in the summer must have been cursing themselves as the man they once paid £100,000 for, crashed in two goals and it could've been more if not for a goal-line clearance and the width of a crossbar.

One wondered if the Irish front-man had been waiting until he faced his former teammates before finally getting on the scoresheet - and on the evidence of the first goal celebrations Conlon certainly enjoyed putting one over the fans who once cheered, and not jeered, his every touch.

Conlon gave City's shining light, Michael Proctor, a lesson in finishing as the young striker - on-loan from Sunderland- missed several chances before finally taking notice of Darlington's number 13 by sweetly curling a shot into the top corner. But by then his goal was academic as Quakers had already notched three.

But manager Tommy Taylor, although satisfied with the victory, wants more from his team and when asked if Darlington had performed to his expectations, the response was defiant.

"No, no, no. There's still so much work to be done," he stated. "What they're doing at the moment is the horrible side of football which is closing people down and turning people. Now we've got to play the way we're facing, get it wide, do a little bit of magic on the ball with our two wide people.

"We held a good defensive line and caught them offside quite a few times. I told them at half-time that we need a better line because they got in behind us a few too many times.

"I thought we were a little bit too deep and could've pushed on a wee bit more.

"It was a scrappy game but we created chances and scored three goals. If you can play like that and still get three goals when we're not playing to our full potential then that's good."

York were a mediocre side and lived up to their 20th position with only goalkeeper Alan Fettis and Proctor shining, but the striker wasted several chances - the pick of which being three one-on-ones with Andy Collett in the first half.

There was no pattern to the play in the opening period but inside three first half minutes York - without former Quakers striker Lee Nogan with a calf injury - were made to pay for their failures in front of goal when first Ian Clark and then Conlon scored.

In his first game back since recovering from a hamstring injury, Brian Atkinson enjoyed an excellent game and he floated in a free-kick to the far post where a goalmouth scramble ensued before Clark stabbed home.

Sixty seconds later Conlon hit the bar but he didn't have to wait long to taste the glory of being a goalscorer once more as moments later Richard Hodgson intercepted a poor Darren Edmondson pass and slid the ball across the penalty area for the big man to blast past Fettis.

The York fans, now silenced having spent 25 minutes booing their former hero, were humbled by the sight of Conlon racing towards them with his ear cupped. Just before the break York were awarded a penalty, given after Collett pulled down Lee Bullock following Paul Heckingbottom's misjudged back-header. But Quakers' two-goal advantage stayed intact thanks to Chris Brass' terrible spot-kick which rolled tamely wide...very wide, estimates begin around the three yard mark.

As Darlington fans are now well aware, Taylor wants his team to be ultra-tight at the back, so at 2-0 Quakers were never going to go streaming forward, especially as the visitors had provided Proctor with some excellent chances.

Chances did eventually come Quakers' way with Neil Wainwright and Hodgson both missing opportunities but 12 minutes from time the points were sealed when Clark played through Conlon who, with grass to run into, opted to shoot early and from 20 yards he blasted low past Fettis, triggering cries for the head of the York manager by the City supporters.

The afternoon's fourth goal could've been for Darlington but Mark Ford saw a measured volley saved brilliantly, Dan Chillingworth should've done better than to see Fettis collect the ball with ease when one-on-one with the Northern Ireland international, and Conlon was denied a hat-trick when a header was cleared off the line. Instead, Quakers' copybook was blotted when Proctor notched in the 84th minute, but it was too little, too late.

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