DARLINGTON brushed off a careless opening goal to go joint top of the embryonic National League North table with an entertaining and comfortable 4-1 home win over Alfreton.

Quakers have now won three out of three – only Brackley and Southport can say the same, while Spennymoor have two wins from two – and they’re in the right mood for their first derby of the season against York City at Bootham Crescent tomorrow.

Nobody can complain about the quality of entertainment at Blackwell Meadows. In just two home games, Quakers have scored eight times, conceded four at the other end and they’re already into double figures with the two they scored at Salford on the opening day. Six different players have now got themselves on the scoresheet.

There might have been some apprehension about the team’s defending following Alfreton’s opener, but the defence recovered its composure and for the other 89 minutes it was nearer to the standard of the clean sheet at Salford last week.

“It’s been a positive start to the season, that’s been the most important thing,” said manager Martin Gray. “We went into our first game of the season at Salford last week, got three points and gained a lot of confidence from the game – we’ve had a good week.

“There was no reason to start the game in the way that we did. We can go through three or four reasons why, and the ball ended up going in the back of our net which is not good enough. What was really important though was the way that we responded, we got ourselves back in the game and James Caton equalised within a minute.

“James needed a goal, just like all strikers do when they go to a new club, and he had a great assist as well in David Ferguson’s goal.

“We were in control of the game for big spells, which was great. We had a meeting before the game regarding certain aspects of Wednesday night’s game that we had to improve upon and I thought the players listened and put that into practice today.

“We talked about the reason for being solid and more focused on the game. We were very focused today, apart from the first 30 seconds. They didn’t cause us too many problems, and I was delighted with that side of the game.

“We made the keeper work a lot, and he made several good saves for them. I thought Josh Gillies’ second goal was outstanding – the header down from Mark Beck, and then to quickly control the ball and put it into the bottom corner was great technique.

“We’re looking now to continue this form at York on Tuesday night.”

Quakers went behind to a goal of their own making on just 31 seconds, when they tried to play the ball out of their own penalty area, lost it, and Craig Westcarr won the ball in a challenge on Dominic Collins, and set up Chris Clarke to score from a few yards.

But Quakers went straight up the other end from the kick off and equalised on 97 seconds, when Beck’s presence in the box saw the ball drop to Caton, who swivelled quickly and fired over Alfreton keeper Chris Elliott into the net for his first goal for the club.

Caton was clearly delighted with his goal after signing in the summer, and said: “It was a great feeling to score, especially after I missed a couple of chances the game before against Gainsborough.”

The game went from end to end after that, and Alfreton nearly regained the lead with a header by Clarke from a right wing cross that Adam Bartlett saved, but when Beck hit the bar with a header from a great cross by Caton, the game started to swing in Quakers’ favour.

They went 2-1 up on 37 minutes when David Ferguson crossed to the edge of the six yard box from the left, and even though Dave Syers had a header partly blocked, the ball ran for Josh Gillies to pick his spot.

It would have been 3-1 before the break if it wasn’t for Elliott turning a low right- foot shot by Syers around the post.

Alfreton posed some danger after half time, when former Grimsby player Craig Disley sneaked into the box and glanced a header towards the bottom corner, but Bartlett saved well at full stretch to maintain Darlington’s 2-1 advantage.

It proved crucial, as Quakers stepped up and took control on 55 minutes when Syers had a shot blocked, Caton regained possession and rolled the ball across the box for David Ferguson to sidestep two defenders and stroke the ball home.

And it was game over just after the hour when Beck nodded down a left-wing cross from Ferguson for Gillies to steer the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.

Quakers didn’t make the mistake of leaving the back door open as they did for Gainsborough on Wednesday. They played the game at their pace, kept possession and didn’t let Alfreton have a sniff, which was a relief for everyone ahead of the big game at Bootham Crescent.