DARLINGTON won their first match in the town for four years, overcoming a Sunderland XI watched by the potential next England manager Sam Allardyce.

He was present at The Northern Echo Arena to cast an eye over a team of compromised of teenagers and outcast, but Quakers came out on top with goals from Kevin Burgess and Nathan Cartman.

Quakers acquitted themselves much better than on Saturday, when they lost 5-1 to a youthful Newcastle United, and manager Martin Gray was pleased.

“We needed an improved performance and we got it. The reaction from the players was exactly what I wanted,” he said.

“They did their jobs tonight, that’s the difference. They didn’t do them on Saturday, but tonight they did their jobs from the start of the game.

“We didn’t allow Sunderland any fluency or to get their game going.

“The two midfield players were excellent, not only with how they used the ball, but how hard they worked off the ball to stop good players playing.”

Gray’s men took the lead inside 180 seconds with a simple set-piece goal.

Burgess stooped to head home from a corner, taken by Stephen Thompson, just as Sam Allardyce was taking his seat.

In a competitive game the simplicity of the goal would have irked Allardyce, man known to drill his players thoroughly on set-pieces.

Friendly results mean little, however, though the performance was relevant and Gray could be satisfied with his team against Sunderland’s second string.

Jordi Gomez, Will Buckley, Liam Bridcutt were in the starting XI, as were Adam Matthews and Charis Mavrias, the latter wasting Sunderland’s first sight of goal on ten minutes.

He shot into Peter Jameson’s hands after the Greek was played down the right by Dan Casey, but that was one of the Black Cats’ glimpses of goal.

It was Darlington who scored the second goal, breaking quickly to make it 2-0 on 25 minutes.

Thompson made a penetrating run, followed by left-back Jordan Watson’s pass into Adam Mitchell and his shot almost crossed the line after being parried by keeper Max Srtyjek, requiring Cartman to grab the final touch.

A drinks break immediately followed, enabling the players to take a breather on very warm evening at the Arena.

The conditions were not familiar to fans who, over Darlington’s nine years at the Arena, spent most matches enduring chilly temperatures at a venue which often appeared to have its own microclimate.

An unmarked Mike Ledger headed over for Sunderland just before half-time, when the visitors made five substitutions, Darlington making four of their own ten minutes into a stop-start second half.

Burgess, replaced at half-time by Gary Brown, returned to the fray for the final stages as Adam Nowakowski limped off.

The second period was less entertaining than the first, few goalmouth incidents to entertain the 1,611 crowd – more than Darlington’s average last season - and no goals added to the scoreline.

Allardyce departed early, while the Quakers supporters left having enjoyed seeing their team put in a performance much-improved from the weekend.

Darlington: Jameson; Marrs (H Scott 55), Burgess (Brown 46), Nowakowski (Burgess 79), Watson, Mitchell (Saunders 83), Portas, Turnbull, Thompson (Nightingale); Gaskell (Hardy 55), Cartman (Purewal 55). Sub (not used): Bell (gk)

Sunderland XI: Srtyjek (Talbot 46), Matthews (Bone 46), Ledger (Lawson 46), Brady, Casey, Gomez (Molyneux 61), Wright (Blinco 46), Bridcutt (Pybus 75), Buckley (Embleton 46), Harvey (Nelson 46), Mavrias (Storey 46). Subs (not used): n/a