DARLINGTON’S fine start to the season continues as they remain unbeaten after collecting a satisfying and deserved point last night at York City.

They went into the contest with three wins behind them, and they are now joint third in table after thrilling end-to-end match somehow ended without a goal, both teams having chances to win a fixture between two of the promotion contenders.

Darlington were given a thorough examination of their abilities, particularly in the first half when goalkeeper Adam Bartlett came to the rescue on several occasions and a York goal appeared imminent.

But they stood firm, changed formation at half-time and turned it around, almost winning with Josh Gillies, Dave Syers and Stephen Thompson all going close to scoring.

Instead, Darlington had to settle for a goalless draw, their first since April 2015, and manager Martin Gray was satisfied with his team’s efforts.

“It’s one of the toughest game in five years we’ve had, it has to be, and it was a good game of football, he said.

“It was two ex-Football League clubs coming together and fighting it out.

“Not many teams will come here and take points. York are a very good team, they have just come out of the Conference, they’re well-organised and have some good players.

“You’ve got to stand up to the balls that come into the box and our team, not just the defence, made some big headers and Adam Bartlett made some fantastic saves to keep us in the game in the first 25 minutes.

“We will always create chances and what was great tonight was that we stayed in the game by being very disciplined. We didn’t give a lot of silly free-kicks away.”

Despite how the first half played out, Darlington were first to get close to goal, Mark Beck heading against the post after meeting James Caton's cross directly in front of the travelling fans.

There were 1,041 of a Quakers persuasion in attendance at Bootham Crescent, a tremendous effort for a midweek away game, but most of the first-half attacks were at the opposite end of the pitch as York made a blistering start.

Quakers goalkeeper Adam Bartlett was first called into action on six minutes, going full stretch to push away Rankine’s rising effort.

He then saved again, this time from Newton, before a moment of controversy saw Darlington's Dom Collins cautioned when ‘last man’ after tripping Amari Morgan-Smith, law changes since last season saving him.

A moment when Darlington’s position as second best in the first half was summed up came when Simon Heslop nonchalantly dinked the ball over the challenge of Dave Syers and advanced through midfield, though the resultant shot was into the body of Bartlett.

Bartlett was busy, and a point-blank save saw him keep out Rankine, York seemingly getting closer to a breakthrough.

Darlington were unable to get a foot on the ball, unable to get up the pitch.

A flurry of York corners, three in as many minutes, came to nothing, however, Darlington hanging on, and as the half reached its conclusion Quakers began to venture forward.

They even almost took the lead. After a Gary Brown throw, Gillies delivered a cross that Collins headed goalwards, goalkeeper Jon Worsnop equal to it.

But in first-half added time the Minstermen were inches away from the lead, Rankine hitting the bar with a header when meeting a corner.

Brown suffered a head injury during the first half, and the defender was unable to continue after half-time, so Leon Scott entered the fray and that meant a rejig.

He was required to bolster the centre of midfield where Darlington had been overrun, Terry Galbraith moved to centre-back, David Ferguson dropped to left-back, with Caton going wide left leaving Beck ploughing a lone furrow up front.

“It suited Leon down to the ground,” said Gray. “He was dogged, he got tackles and blocks in, made a difference, and used the ball sensibly. We needed him in there and then changes worked well for us.”

Darlington became more solid, the supply to Rankine becoming limited, and it was not until 15 minutes in that York got close, Newton dragging a shot wide.

Quakers replaced Caton with Harvey Saunders, and the 20-year-old’s introduction almost provided instant rewards, charging down a Worsnop clearance and with the keeper AWOL Gillies tried an opportunistic effort from wide on the right, the ball looping towards goal but not quite inside the post.

Stephen Thompson was sent on too, and his volley looked all the world like it was going in as he met a Ferguson cross, the ball powering just inches over the bar.

Saunders and Beck had been involved in the build-up and Darlington had York worried, a complete contrast from the first half.

Another attack saw the ball roll under Beck’s feet after a Syers pass into the danger area, and just when York through the danger was over Ferguson tried a 40-yard blast, could not have been hit cleaner, the ball clearing the crossbar but not by much.

Right-back Chris Hunter joined in the attack, and when the ball broke Syers smashed it towards goal and beat the keeper, the post rattling as the ball bounced back into play.

It was end-to-end, a proper contest between two well-backed clubs with fans who gave their respective teams lots of vocal support.

But neither had a goal to cheer, meaning Quakers recorded their second clean sheet of the campaign, which is a victory of sorts – it took them 25 games to manage the achievement last season.

“There were a lot of big performances and on another night we would’ve won the game on the second half performance,” added Gray.

“We almost got a win out of it.”

Bookings: Collins (11, foul); Newton (85, dissent)

Referee: Simon Mather 8

Attendance: 3,944

Entertainment: PPPPP

York City (4-3-3): Worsnop; Law, Bencherif, Parslow, Whittle; Moke (Connolly 75), Newton, Heslop; Morgan-Smith, Rankine (Muggleton 90), Almond. Subs (not used): Smith, Felix, Sukar

Darlington (4-4-2): Bartlett; Hunter, Brown (Scott 46), Collins, Galbraith; Gillies (Thompson 70), Turnbull, Syers, Ferguson; Beck, Caton (Saunders 58). Subs (not used): Wilczynski (gk), Fenwick

MAN OF THE MATCH

ADAM Bartlett - Kept Quakers in the contest with a strong of first half saves