Histon 0 Darlington 1

Darlington avoided being humbled by Histon when substitute striker John Campbell scored a late goal in last night's match.

Bottom-of-the-table Histon were relegated when they lost at Gateshead at the weekend and prior to last night had lost nine games in a row, but they came close to ending that sequence against Quakers who fielded an experimental line-up.

Mark Cooper made six changes and although Darlington scraped a win, the manager was less than satisfied.

He said: "We've got be better than that. It was a poor performance.

"Histon had lost their last nine so, no disrespect to them, but we've got to do better. We made it too easy for them by giving them chances, our tempo wasn't high enough and we didn't create enough chances.

"In the first 20 minutes we didn't ask any questions of their defenders, had we done that we could've found ourselves two or three up."

Cooper handed full debuts to keeper Danzelle St Louis-Hamilton and youth team product Phil Gray, while regulars such as Sam Russell Aaron Brown and Marc Bridge-Wilkinson were rested.

He added: "I make no apologies for experimenting a little, because that enabled us to have a look at one or two players, but I'd say we've gotten away with it as we won.

"I've got to have a look at everyone in a match and none of them can say they haven't been given a chance now. Barring one or two, there weren't many who did themselves any good tonight."

The evening got off to a poor start for Darlington when Liam Hatch limped off with a shin injury, though Cooper said he was withdrawn as a precaution.

As well as Gray and St Louis-Hamilton, also in the line-up were John McReady, Gary Smith, Michael Smith and Nathan Modest.

Aman Verma kept his place, though Histon were handed their first chance when he lost possession on halfway.

Antonio Murray dribbled almost half the length of the pitch before teeing up Jay Dowie to shoot.

St Louis-Hamilton, however, remained a spectator as Dowie's effort from the edge of the penalty area went well over the crossbar.

The second half was slightly delayed due to a linesman being unable to continue due to injury, but within 20 seconds of the restart referee Michael Bull had a huge decision to make.

Histon believed they should have been awarded a penalty when Omar Riza fell to the floor as he rounded St Louis-Hamilton, but the rookie keeper's challenge was deemed fair.

Cooper then took action, replacing Modest and Michael Smith with Chris Senior and Campbell, but there was an escape for Ian Miller. His weak header back to St Louis-Hamilton was seized on by Murray, but the Histon man lobed his effort wide.

As the game opened up, Gray cleared a Murray effort the line before Campbell gained his first sight of goal.

After receiving a Gary Smith pass, from 20 yards the striker cracked a powerful low effort that Foderingham proved equal to.

Foderingham was at it again soon after, showing quick reactions to tip over Miller's close-range header after Adam Quinn's effort, after a Gary Smith corner, was blocked.

From the resulting corner, however, Quakers finally took the lead. Again Smith took it and again Quinn headed across goal, and this time Campbell headed in.

The goal had taken 81 minutes to arrive, but Darlington soon almost had another with Senior ghosting into space to meet Smith's chip, however, his flick hit the top of the crossbar.

Campbell then suffered a suspected broken nose when charging down a clearance from the Histon keeper.

The match, played in front of only 277, ended on a sour note, with Smith earning a red card and a three-match ban for kicking out at Lee Smith off the ball.

MATCHFACTS

Goal: Campbell (81, 0-1)

Booking: Hawkins (58, foul)

Sending-off: G Smith (90, violent conduct)

Referee: Michael Bull (Essex) 7

Attendance: 277

Entertainment: 2/5

Histon (4-4-2): Foderingham 7; Okay 6, Oyebanjo 7, Mills 6, Hawkins 7; Dowie 7 (Okojie 76), Smith 6, Stevenson 6, Taaffe 5 (Cox 64, 6); RIZA 7, Murray 7. Subs (not used): Lawton, Stewart, Wooton

Darlington (4-3-3): St Louis-Hamilton 7; Taylor 7, Miller 6, Quinn 6, P Gray 7; McREADY 7, G Smith 5, Verma 6; Modest 5 (Campbell 57, 7); Hatch 5 (Arnison 10, 7), M Smith 5 (Senior 59, 6). Subs (not used): Russell (gk), Terry

Man of the match

John McReady - the youngster showed some nice touches in midfield