Video highlights: Sutton Coldfield Town 1 Darlington 0

Ordinarily one to remain upbeat no matter what, he was far from positive after seeing Darlington put in their worst performance of the season and having Alan White sent off.

They lost 1-0 at Sutton Coldfield Town, a team that had lost their previous five league games, so exit the FA Trophy in the second qualifying round.

“I thought we started poorly and didn’t get any better,” admitted the manager in his frank assessment.

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“We huffed and puffed. We defended poorly, we attacked poorly, we didn’t use the ball well. I always try to defend my players, but today’s performance was well below par.

“As teams do sometimes, we had an off day. I’m just pleased it was a cup game, that’s the best thing about it, I’m relieved it wasn’t in the league because the league is our number one focus.

“We’ve got to learn from it, we can’t be putting in those performances and believe me we’ll have an unbelievable response next Saturday.

“For the first time this season I don’t think anybody can come away from the game with any credit.”

Certainly not White following his latest red card, his second of the season and fourth of 2015.

Sent off ten minutes from time for flinging an elbow at Josh McKenzie, the 39-year-old now faces an uncertain future –the club issued a final warning after his dismissal last month.

White’s red capped Darlington’s day, which began by going a goal down on 14 minutes and it was their own fault.

Adam Mitchell’s sloppy pass was intercepted, Sutton attacked, Luke Rogers crossed and with Darlington’s hesitant defence unable to clear Jordan Goddard applied the finish.

Gray had begun the game watching from a seat in the stand, and was soon on the touchline changing formation.

Quakers started with new signing Wilson Kneeshaw behind front pair Nathan Cartman and Lee Gaskell, while the returning Gary Brown was at right-back and the manager explained: “We tried a different formation because we thought the pitch would allow us to pass it, and Wilson did really well in that position against Blyth during the week. We changed it to suit the personnel and the pitch, but we never got going.

“We changed to 4-4-2, then 4-3-3 and then when we were down to ten men at the end we played 3-4-2. We made changes to get into the game, but we were so inconsistent in our play.”

Sutton play on a 3G surface, and Gray added: “The pitch is a factor, but you can’t use that as an excuse – we train on a pitch like this.”

Darlington briefly improved after switching to 4-4-2, and Kneeshaw, shifted to the right, created Darlington’s first chance by breaking into the penalty area but Cartman poked wide his effort.

By half-time Sutton should have been further ahead. Rogers, a former striker at Shrewsbury among many others, was a menace and only wasteful finishing and Peter Jameson’s interventions kept the score down.

Soon after the restart a poor miss by Joel Kettle meant it stayed 1-0, and then man of the match Jameson did well to smother Kyle Bryant’s volley after the winger met Rogers’ precise cross-field pass.

Gray had seen enough, sending on three substitutes in Lewis Gibbons, Adam Nowakowski and Stephen Thompson, although leaving Graeme Armstrong on the bench appeared odd.

Darlington were unable to muster a fightback, however. They gave it a go, but Sutton keeper James Wren was untroubled and then came White’s moment of madness.

With the ball in the air and heading for the Darlington penalty area, he swung an elbow at McKenzie, referee Chris Husband awarded a penalty and showed the defender a second yellow having previously cautioned him for dissent, even though the foul merited a straight red.

“You berk,” shouted a frustrated Quakers fan in the main stand as White headed for the changing room.

Gray was less blunt, but reluctant to talk about White’s future, saying simply: “I’ve got to take everything into account, speak to the club and think of the bigger picture.”

Rogers’ penalty was saved by Jameson, the only Darlington player to emerge with his head held high.

An opportunity to bolster finances through prize money had been dashed early in the competition, same as Quakers’ involvement in the FA Cup.

“We played a strong team because we didn’t come here to get beat,” added Gray. “We came here to win, but the performance was not good enough.

“There were very strong words said afterwards, but you’ve got to look at what they’ve done overall in the league this season. We’re where we want to be.

“The players understand it wasn’t good enough and there’ll be a reaction next week.”