A POSITIVE reaction to a poor result is one of the constants of Martin Gray’s management, his team responding with a victory after an adverse result becoming almost a trademark.

Following last week’s painful loss in the FA Cup at Lancaster City, a team two divisions below Quakers, another speedy recovery was required.

So Saturday’s convincing performance was greatly appreciated, with Gray’s men now up to third, one point off the top, after an incident-packed 4-1 trouncing of Stalybridge Celtic.

There were another two goals for leading scorer Liam Hardy, Josh Gillies made a welcome return and Stephen Thompson scored a special goal.

Leon Scott’s red card early in the second half barely dampened Darlington’s day – besides, Stalybridge soon suffered a dismissal of their own – leaving Gray to reflect on a job well done.

He said: “I said we had to respond, we’ve always done that whenever we’ve not achieved what we’ve wanted, and we did it again today.

“It was a good performance from start to finish, we were always in control over the 90 minutes.

“We had looked at their formation, 3-5-2, and we exposed them down the sides. The quality from wide areas into the box was great.

“We were playing against a team who have new management, some new players, they were very physical and they didn’t make life easy.”

Third-bottom Stalybridge were bolstered by some new signings, including striker Sam Madeley, once of Salford City, for whom he scored in Quakers’ 2-0 defeat at Moor Lane in January 2015.

In what became a nightmare debut, he almost scored inside the first 60 seconds on Saturday, his effort skimming the top of the bar, but then Darlington took control, with Hardy netting four minutes in.

He turned the ball home after Thompson had crossed following Terry Galbraith’s raking cross-field pass, giving under-strength Quakers the perfect start. Although the opposition came into the contest having lost nine of their previous ten league fixtures, Gray’s XI was way off full-strength, with Peter Jameson, Kevin Burgess, Chris Hunter, Gary Brown and Phil Turnbull all sidelined, and Darlington’s defensives deficiencies were highlighted by Stalybridge’s equaliser.

It came from nowhere, Andy Owens shooting past Paul Woolston from 18 yards after exploiting space and it meant, 13 games into the season, Quakers have still kept only one clean sheet.

“It was a soft one to concede,” admitted Gray, who selected Adam Nowakowski in the centre of the back four with Galbraith. “We’d had a throw-in high up the pitch and we ended up getting done on the counter-attack.

“We’re scratching our heads thinking how can we be in charge of the ball 70 yards up the pitch and end up conceding?

“Things like that we need to improve on. We’re getting punished every time we make a slight error.”

Stung by the leveller, Quakers endured a flat spell, but eventually regained control and took a 3-1 lead into half-time.

Hardy’s second came on 37 minutes, sweeping home after good work on the left by Gillies, and from the opposite flank Thompson teed up the third goal, pulling back for Gillies to score.

Curiously, Stalybridge, rather than waiting for half-time, immediately sent on midfielder Callum Bagshaw and his first involvement was to maim Tom Portas.

It was from behind, a coward’s challenge, and one referee Kelvin Sarsfield incorrectly punished with only a yellow.

“The substitute committed a horrendous challenge from behind,” said a seething Gray, who had to be separated from a Stalybridge player at half-time. “If there’s no intention to win the ball, which there wasn’t, it should be a red.

“I can’t say it was an instruction (from their bench) but he’s got one of my players off injured, so he’s done something for their team.”

Portas was replaced by Scott, who lasted ten minutes before being deservedly dismissed for serious foul play, with Bagshaw the victim – and it looked like retribution.

Gray said: “One thing I will say about Leon Scott’s tackle is that it was face-on, it was not from behind, and it looked a real solid, firm challenge. The referee took his time to make his decision, and it looked like a booking from my point of view.”

But within eight minutes Madeley evened things up with two bookings, the first for handball, the second a foul on Liam Marrs, so it was ten versus ten, as at Lancaster.

This time, however, with Josh Falkingham bossing midfield, Quakers were in command, with the only disappointment being the 1,231 attendance, the club’s lowest of the season.

The stay-aways missed a cracking match, as well as Thompson’s classy strike to make it 4-1.

After Mark Beck’s knock-down, Thompson’s feint on the edge of the box sent two Stalybridge defenders for a pie, and Quakers’ forward then adroitly curled the ball into the top corner.

The team had delivered the perfect response, and so had Thompson on his recall.

Gray added: “His performance was more like what we expect of him. We needed a performance like that from Thompson because he’s got to get to back to that level. Hopefully he will improve on that going forward.”