DARLINGTON dropped to sixth place in the National League North table after being held to a 2-2 draw by battling Bradford PA at Blackwell Meadows.

After taking an early lead, they switched off let Bradford back into the game to lead 2-1, and Nathan Newall equalised early in the second half. But there was huge controversy right at the end when a defender seemed to handle a Jake Lawlor effort from close range.

Manager Alun Armstrong said: “If the players showed as much fight in the first half after we scored as we did in the second, then we would have won the game.

“We seemed to come up short. After we scored early on, I thought we were going to win three or four nil quite comfortably. There was a big moment for me when Jacob Hazel was trying to go round the keeper, and for me it was a penalty. The ref didn’t give it because he probably thought there was a foul to them in the build-up. That was a start to a bad day for him. After that we just stopped playing for some reason, and I questioned the players’ desire at half-time. Two mistakes cost us.

“I think they put that right in the second half. How we didn't get a penalty in the last two minutes has dumbfounded me.”

Quakers got the start they wanted on six minutes. Hazel found left-back Newall overlapping, and Newall crossed perfectly to the far post where Kaine Felix rose high and firmly headed past George Sykes-Kenworthy for his fourth goal of the season.

They nearly got a second, but the keeper held on to Jarrett Rivers' 20-yard shot after he had cut in from the right, and when Hazel latched on to an Adriano Moke pass and ran into the area, the keeper saved at his feet with Hazel claiming that he was fouled in the process.

But the game turned against Quakers on 31 minutes. Keeper Tommy Taylor parried an effort by Myles La Bastide, and then pushed it away from one forward, but as Will Longbottom tried to latch on to the ball with his back to goal, the referee ruled that Taylor tripped him with an outstretched hand and awarded a penalty, which Longbottom converted.

And it got worse four minutes before half-time, when Bradford midfielder Sam Fielding found space and split the home defence with a perfect pass for Longbottom to fire past the stranded keeper.

Quakers recovered in the second half, and levelled on 55 minutes when Andrew Nelson’s cross went over everybody to the far post where Newall exchanged passes with Moke, and then the Sunderland loanee lifted the ball over Sykes-Kenworthy into the net. He admitted afterwards that his effort was meant to be a cross and not an attempt on goal.

Sub Declan Howe had penalty appeals turned down when he seemed to be impeded as he tried to latch on to a Hazel pass, and when the ball came back into the penalty area, it dropped for Rivers, who fired over from ten yards out.

Quakers dominated possession after that, but it was Bradford who nearly won the game when Sam Fielding broke away with five minutes left, but side-footed wide.

The drama continued when Hazel controlled the ball on the edge of the box, but pulled his shot just wide of the post.

Quakers kept plugging away, and Lawlor, who had been pushed up front, could only turn Newall’s cross into the keeper’s hands.

But there was huge controversy in the last minute of stoppage time when Hazel set up Lawlor six yards out, and the emergency striker’s effort beat Sykes-Kenworthy but Bradford defender Mitch Lund appeared to block the ball with his elbow. To Quakers’ fury, the referee pointed for a corner, from which Howe headed wide.