THE mishaps which characterised Darlington’s start to the year stunned manager Tommy Wright, who was deeply disappointed in his team’s defending.

Quakers lost 3-0 at Harrogate Town yesterday, the second and third goals coming with visitors taking advantage of lax play from the visitors.

It was the sixth time Darlington have conceded three goals in a match during his eight games, and particularly disappointing given the improved display in the Boxing Day win against Harrogate.

He said: “You can’t go from saying the team is so good on Boxing Day to saying it’s so bad on New Year’s Day.

“It’s not about time on the training pitch. The lads knows how to defend.

“I’m only as good as the players that go on the pitch and when I clearly say something at half-time and that doesn’t happen, ultimately fingers get pointed at me.

“We work on set-plays, we have chats about threats, and either it’s not sinking in or it’s being ignored and I’d like to think it’s the first one.

“I can’t put earpieces on every single player and tell them what’s going on.

“We were screaming before that second goal to sort it out on the halfway line.

“It was arguably our two most experienced players on the pitch, one of them is my captain.

“I said the same to Phil Turnbull when he came off, we need to be better than this.”