TOMMY Taylor got off to the worst possible start as the new Darlington manager when his first game in charge saw his new side crash out of the LDV Vans Trophy at Scunthorpe last night.

In front of just 1,626 fans 87 of those making the trip from Darlington Quakers deservedly lost at the second round stage with all the goals coming during a second half in which the Iron got better and better and could have added to their three goal total.

Like in the previous round's win over Macclesfield, Darlington made changes, although two of those were due to Craig Liddle and Danny Mellanby's injuries - their places went to David Brightwell and Kirk Jackson respectively. Neil Wainwright came back into the side after suspension and with Andy Collett rested, Frank van der Geest was in goal.

In keeping with his reputation for giving youth a chance, Taylor gave youth team forward Mark Sheeran a place on the substitutes bench while Adam Marsh and Clint Marcelle weren't involved after the new manager had lamented Barry Conlon's strike partners after Saturday's defeat against Hull.

Former Darlington striker Martin Carruthers was involved in a move which should have seen the home side take the lead just before the 20 minute mark. His powerful shot from inside the area rebounded into Alex Calvo-Garcia's path but the Spanish midfielder poked his effort over the bar and a minute later Steve Torpey missed a similar opportunity.

Quakers' best chance of the first 45 minutes came in injury time but Barry Conlon put a free header wide from six yards after Hodgson's pin-point corner.

But Scunthorpe showed their intent just five minutes into the second period. A poor Simon Betts pass was intercepted and Sunthorpe stormed forward into the visitors' penalty area, the ball finding it's way to Lee Hodges who made no mistake from 12 yards.

The game was as good as over when Carruthers beat van der Geest to a through ball and tapped home from close-range, despite the Dutch keeper claiming the ex-Quaker had handled.

And 11 minutes from time, the normally dependable van der Geest fisted a corner directly into the air, and before he could recover, Jamie McCombe headed the rebound into the net to complete a deserved 3-0 win for the Iron.

Read more about the Quakers here.