DARLINGTON continued their fine start to the season by making it two wins in inside three days last night at Curzon Ashton.

They did not get the better of Curzon when they were locked in a title race three seasons ago, but beat them 2-1 last night with goals by Liam Hardy and Kevin Burgess, although Quakers were hanging on by full-time.

The hosts were unrelenting in their pressure and almost denied Darlington the points, but after some nervy moments Quakers recorded their first away win of the campaign.

“It is nice to win down here as we didn’t manage to do anything against the other season when they won the title,” admitted boss Martin Gray.

“We’ve had a great start to the season. We’ve gone into a new league, a tough competitive league, and taken seven points from three games so I’m delighted with our start.”

His team were wasteful in front of goal, but it did not start that was as Darlington went 1-0 up after four minutes, Liam Hardy slotting the ball under onrushing keeper Cameron Mason after collecting Burgess’ neat pass.

It was the ideal start for Quakers, who failed to score in either of their meetings with Curzon during 2013-14, losing 1-0 and 4-0.

It proved to be the first of many for Darlington, who were excellent in the first half but wasteful in front of goal, Mark Beck having a night to forget.

A fantastic save by Curzon’s rookie keeper, playing due to an injury to their usual No. 1, kept out a powerful header by Beck who met Josh Gillies’ cross to the far post.

Play-maker Gillies has shown glimpses of ability during his first appearances for Darlington, and he was again a livewire last night, difficult for Curzon to curtail when cutting in from the left.

He came close to scoring as Darlington continued their strong start, his shot deflected over for a corner by Liam Tomsett.

It was not until 22 minutes in that the Nash had their first opening, causing Peter Jameson to make a simple save to collect Niall Cummins’ tame effort, and Curzon’s Ryan Hall then had the ball in the net but the striker was flagged offside.

Curzon had no qualms, but were furious when Gary Brown fouled Paul Ennis.

The defender’s sliding challenge started inside the penalty area and ended just before he reached the car park, taking out Ennis en route, earning a booking.

Gray’s men should have scored again before the break, notably when Beck wastefully headed over from an Adam Mitchell cross.

“We were really strong, dominant, and put a lot of good balls into the box,” said Gray. “On another day we could’ve scored three or four and it would’ve been game over at half-time.

“Apart from the final part, putting the ball into the net, you couldn’t fault the first half performance, but you always leave yourself vulnerable if you don’t take your chances.”

Gillies was inches away from a cracking goal when a shot was deflected wide soon after the restart, but from the resulting corner, taken by Galbraith, Burgess was on hand to prod home when the ball dropped kindly.

But the two-goal lead lasted a mere four minutes, because after an attack down Darlington’s left, a shot was blocked and Cummins converted the loose ball.

It meant Quakers have yet to keep a clean sheet this season, and they did well not to concede again last night.

When they should have been 2-0 up and killing the game off, instead Curzon were encouraged and they began to play their best football of the evening.

They stretched Darlington, Iain Howard going just wide with an acrobatic volley.

Gray could see the danger and sent on Leon Scott for Adam Mitchell, however, a loose pass in midfield saw Curzon counter quickly, but Quakers escaped as Ryan Hall put the ball into the side-netting.

“Conceding four minutes after we’d scored gave them momentum,” added Gray. “If we’d stayed 2-0 ahead for another ten minutes we’d have killed the game off, but conceding the goal meant Curzon were the dominant team for the last part of the game.

“We showed great character and rode our luck a bit. Having said that, Beck missed a chance to make it 3-1.”

Beck was stretching but he was wide with only the keeper to beat at close-range, a poor miss, and at the other end Burgess almost scored an own goal during Curzon pressure when cutting out a Joe Guest cross.

Darlington were under pressure and living dangerously, but were given a huge let-off when Cummins was guilty of an embarrassing miss in injury time.

With the goal gaping after a pass from the right, the striker was somehow off-target and Quakers were off the hook.