Darlington’s dreadful season stumbles on, their latest loss being a 2-1 home defeat to Spennymoor Town.

The visitors suffered a shock 6-0 loss in midweek to Scunthorpe United, but got their promotion hopes back on course with a deserved victory, cantering to the points by scoring a goal in each half at Blackwell Meadows.

Relegation-threatened Darlington remain rooted to the bottom of the table with one win in 14 league fixtures having scored only ten goals.

These are desperate times, particularly for manager Josh Gowling. He had five of his new signings in the starting XI and two more came off the bench, but any improvement in the team since his appointment is not evident.

For lengthy spells they did not lay a glove on Spennymoor, who were the better side without getting out of second gear.

Yet it had been a promising start for Quakers, though any hopes of exploiting James Curtis' glacial pace were extinguished when the experienced Moors defender limped off following a slight nudge by Jacob Hazel.

Darlington failed to trouble goalkeeper James Montgomery, however, and their early promise was snuffed out when Danny Greenfield gave Moors the lead on 20 minutes.

Rob Ramshaw played the ball forward, Quakers failed to clear and Greenfield made weak contact but it was still enough to beat on-loan goalkeeper David Robson, who should have done better.

Both sides were forced into changes just before the half-hour mark due to injuries, Jake Lawlor replaced by Hayden Lindley, and Moors replacing Michael Ledger with Keenan Ferguson.

Lawlor’s early exit meant, with no centre-backs on the bench despite the out of favour Toby Lees and Jassem Sukar being available, Tom Platt had to drop into defence. Hayden Lindley replaced him in midfield.

It was so close to 2-0 after a Darlington error. Charlie Winfield, on his Darlington debut, one of five Gowling signings in the starting XI, lost possession to Ramshaw, and he played in Will Harris who pulled his shot wide.

Harris also flicked a header narrowly wide after a Mark Anderson corner.

Montgomery had been a virtual spectator, but he was alert enough to save from Cameron Salkeld in first half added time when the Darlington was through.

Robson may have cost Quakers the first goal, but in the second half the goalkeeper was more convincing and pulled off a smart save to deny Greenfield when Darlington failed to clear their penalty area.

Robson also went full-length to push away a Glen Taylor rocket as Moors’ pressure mounted and a second goal looked inevitable against a Quakers side seemingly lacking fight, which has got to be a major concern.

The second goal came with 22 minutes to go when Mark Anderson rifled home after meeting Ramshaw’s delivery from the byline, sweetly striking the ball home to the delight of the 155 travelling fans in visitors’ end.

Darlington switched formation and for the latter stages, for the first time, began to get balls into the penalty area.

They became threatening had hope when Jacob Hazel lifted the ball over Montgomery from inside the penalty area after a neat exchange of passes.

But that was as good as it got, and an equaliser would not have been merited after another dire day for rock-bottom Darlington.

They are now nine points from safety, and focus turns to playing away next weekend to Farsley, who just above the relegation zone.

Spennymoor, however, are fourth, six points off leaders Tamworth ahead of back-to-back home games: Boston on November 1, and Curzon Ashton on November 7.

Darlington: Robson; Griffiths, Lawlor (Lindley 27), Burton; Rowe (Simms 72), Platt, Ngandu, Hatfield, Winfield (Hedley 65); Hazel, Salkeld. Subs not used: Nelson, Windass,

Spennymoor Town: Montgomery; Ledger (Ferguson 27), Curtis (Mbeka 12), Pollock, Staunton; Ramshaw, Ross, Anderson (Fielding 74); Greenfield; Taylor, Harris. Subs not used: Gallacher, McKeown

Referee: Helen Conley

Attendance: 1,532