IT was a day for only the brave at Barwell, when a hat, scarf and gloves were essential attire, and some of the players must’ve been tempted to do likewise.

It was cold, wet and windy in Leicestershire. At its worst, it was like trying to play football inside a washing machine on full cycle.

Such conditions are easier to live with when you’ve won, so for Quakers it made for a thoroughly miserable day.

Darlington lost 2-1 after conceding goals just before and after half-time on one of their longest trips of the season, the only consolation being that Salford City also lost.

To top it off, Barwell later used social media to air a complaint about Darlington not stopping back afterwards for a post-match pint, etiquette keenly observed by many in non-league.

Darlington should have taken advantage of Barwell’s hospitality, though, when you’ve just been beaten on an awful winter day and you’ve got, for some of the players, a four-hour journey ahead and roadworks on the A1 to navigate, the last thing on their minds will have been a social drink and a sausage roll in the clubhouse.

Quakers, simply, were miffed after another defeat.

That’s two in a row now, two weeks apart, both to teams in the bottom half of the division.

While the previous one was in the FA Trophy, at Sutton Coldfield Town, league losses such as these were less likely earlier in the season when Darlington were in better form and picking up points.

For the past two matches manager Martin Gray has switched to 4-3-3, in-form Stephen Thompson finding himself out of the team with new signing Wilson Kneeshaw preferred.

Gray explained: “We changed formation because of the conditions, the team was different until we got to the ground. I looked at the conditions, the pitch and the personnel and made a change.”

He did not disclose precisely what that change was, but did say: “With the pitch and the wind, it wasn’t the conditions to be getting the ball down and playing it to wide players.

“We do work on different formations in training in lots of detail. I do think we’ve got the personnel to be able to change, today we just needed a rub of the green.

“The pitches are going to get worse as the season goes on, so even more than before it’s about rolling your sleeves up and being disciplined. We didn’t do an awful lot wrong, we just conceded two soft goals.”

The first came in first-half stoppage time, Lee Tomkinson’s tame effort from 20 yards taking a heavy deflection off Chris Hunter, the second sloppily conceded at a corner five minutes after the restart.

Jamie Towers nodded home at the near post and creating a 2-0 lead which neither side could claim to merit having struggled to play any fluid football in the conditions.

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Gray said: “I thought the conditions were really bad in the first half, kicking up a big slope.

“But I thought we did ever so well for the first 45 minutes, and we then conceded to a shot that was going to trickle into the keeper’s hands but took a big deflection.

“That was disappointing because we’d done enough to go in 0-0 at half-time. We’d had one or two chances from Kevin Burgess in the first half, on another the day they go flying in.

“Having said that, we defended a set-piece poorly at the start of the second half. It was a basic mistake, their lad got across us.

“So we had a bad end to the first half, a bad start to the second half and gave them a 2-0 lead.

“In the second half we had the slope and a bit of wind. We played most of the football in their half, yes they counter-attacked a few times because we were going for it.”

Graeme Armstrong, on his first league start since September, saw a diving header saved by Liam Castle as Darlington responded to going 2-0 down by introducing Thompson and Lee Gaskell, reverting to 4-4-2 and immediately looking more dangerous.

Tom Portas pulled one back after Armstrong and Gaskell combined to play the ball into the midfielder’s path and he drove home on 65 minutes, leaving plenty of time for an equaliser.

However, for all that Darlington had lots of possession, Castle was not troubled nearly enough, while Barwell had a third goal ruled out for offside.

“We hardly gave their keeper a save to make in the second half,” admitted Gray. “We bombarded them and nothing seemed to drop.

“I don’t think the performance was a million miles away from what we want. We just defended poorly at the start of the second half. You defend that corner better and at worst you go on to get a point out of the game.”

n Quakers play away to Frickley Athletic the Integro Doodson League Cup tomorrow evening, but Gray says he will send a youth team to contest the tie.

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