NEW signing Cedric Main inspired Darlington to a much-needed three points on Saturday as they claimed only their second home league win of the season.

Main met his new team-mates just 90 minutes before the start of the game, but he slotted in straight away and caused Hereford continuous problems with his pace, strength and hold-up play.

While he didn’t score, he set up one goal and played a big part in Quakers’ best display of the season. They demonstrated a huge all round will-to-win and commitment which was missing most of the time before the arrival of manager Steve Watson and his assistant Terry Mitchell. They looked a completely different side to the one that lost so miserably to Bishop’s Stortford at Christmas.

Quakers are still second bottom, but if they continue this form, they have real hope of closing the seven-point gap to Southport and Spennymoor, who are just above the relegation zone.

“Cedric adds a little bit of dimension to what we’ve got already with our forwards,” said Watson. “He’s really good with his back to goal and is really clever and strong.

“He scores goals, and as we saw on Saturday, he makes goals. With him in the squad, we’ve got different kinds of strikers now, and we’ve got different options.

“I thought we defended brilliantly, not just the back four and keeper, to a man we were outstanding. We tracked runners, we blocked shots, we defended from the front.

"Without the ball, I thought we were good which we had to be against a good side. When we actually started playing and putting two or three passes together, we opened them up.

“We scored two good goals, but we created enough chances to be a little more comfortable in the last ten minutes. But to say we’re missing chances and not taking opportunities is a step forward in itself compared to a couple of weeks ago.”

Quakers took early control of the game. They forced four corners without success, while the dangerous Main set up Kallum Griffiths, whose shot was blocked.

They took the lead on 25 minutes when Main broke down the right and squared the ball for Jonny Ngandu to cleverly dummy for Ben Liddle to stroke home his first goal of the season, and only Quakers’ second goal in seven games.

Ben Hedley nearly got a second with a shot that flew just past the post before the break, and just on half-time, Will Hatfield and Andrew Nelson had efforts blocked.

Hereford put more pressure on the Darlington defence in the second half, but Quakers kept their composure with some well-timed tackles and blocks.

They nearly went further ahead when Main broke away and set up sub Cameron Salkeld, whose right-foot shot hit the base of the post before Liddle put the rebound over the top.

After keeper Tommy Taylor came out of his area to stop a one-on-one, Ngandu ran from the halfway line and struck a right-foot shot that Curtis Pond just managed to turn around the post.

Hedley also ran into the box and had a right-foot shot well saved by the keeper, who also saved at full length from Griffiths.

There was always the worry that Hereford might sneak an equaliser and a header by Jason Cowley was due notice of that, but in the last minute of normal time, Salkeld chested the ball down in midfield and sent fellow sub Matty Cornish running through to score with a low left-foot shot across the keeper into the net.

Quakers’ next game is at Banbury on Tuesday night – the third time they have tried to play the game this season after two postponements because of waterlogged pitches.