Darlington manager Alun Armstrong said that little moments are costing his side after they lost to a late goal at Edgar Street.

Quakers looked good for a point and possibly even three thanks to their second half display, but defender Jassem Sukar conceded a needless penalty which eventually led to the Bulls’ winner.

“I’m gutted for the lads and the fans who went down,” he said.

“The lads had soaked up everything that was thrown at them. We’d done loads of work defensively during the week, and I thought we were superb defensively. But one lapse of concentration cost us.

“Tommy dug Jassem out of a hole by saving the penalty, but they still scored with a deflected shot which looped in – and that sums up our luck at the moment.

“We missed far too many chances. When you go to an away ground, you would expect to put at least two or three of those away. We can’t keep missing chances and expect to win a game, it puts pressure on the back lads. We need someone to give that little spark. We know the lads have got it; they just didn’t deserve to lose.

“I thought Kaine Felix caused them umpteen problems with his pace, but we just couldn’t get the ball to Cameron enough on the left. Maybe the only sticking point was that the midfield didn’t get on the ball enough and supply Haze.

“They deserved something from the game, it was 100 times better than the Curzon game, but these little moments are costing us. You earn your own luck, it’s about time it started going the way of our lads.”

There wasn’t much to get excited about in the first half as both sides tried to cope with the breeze and neither defence was troubled. Nothing much happened until the 17th minute when Kaine Felix lost possession, and Jason Cowley got away, but Darlington keeper Tommy Taylor saved his low effort.

Overall, Quakers weren’t really troubled in front of a partisan crowd, but at the start of the second half they had the post to thank for keeping them in the game after a volley by Stanley Obinna.

But then Quakers had a good 30-minute spell in which they should have scored.

Hazel and Cameron Salkeld combined well and Salkeld set up Hazel, whose low effort was deflected just wide by a defender.

Sub Andrew Nelson’s first real involvement was a run up the left past two defenders, and he pulled the ball back for the unmarked Salkeld, who failed to beat Hereford keeper Curtis Pond from ten yards.

But Quakers fell behind with a minute left. Sukar dawdled too long with the ball, was dispossessed by sub Connor Stanley and then tripped him in the area.

The referee pointed to the spot, Taylor denied Adam Rooney with a diving save – his first penalty stop for Darlington – but Stanley regained possession and beat Taylor with the help of a deflection.

Quakers dominated possession in 12 minutes of stoppage time and nearly levelled, but Felix scuffed his shot wide from a Salkeld cross.,while Salkeld almost rounded the keeper, but Pond just got a hand to the ball.