RESILIENT Darlington needed a late fightback to avoid an embarrassing defeat to the division’s bottom side, scoring inside the last ten minutes to secure a scrappy win 2-1 at Bradford Park Avenue.

Although hit by injuries, with five players sidelined, for Martin Gray’s side anything other than three points would have been a failure.

And they were heading for it with ten minutes to go. Bradford, without a win this season and having lost their previous seven matches, led 1-0 despite Darlington dominating possession and keeping their battling hosts inside their own half for lengthy periods.

Quakers had, not for the first time this season, missed several chances, but salvation came in the form of Liam Hardy, who came off the bench to equalise and then Terry Galbraith scored directly from a corner, Quakers’ 16th of the night.

The points move Quakers up to fourth, a point off the top, and allowed a relieved Gray to reflect: “Whether we’re having a good night or bad night, the attitude of the players is always resilient. We don’t lie down and we deserve that win tonight.

“We’ve got five first-team players out injured, but it’s about those who are playing. Those that came into the team did themselves and the club proud.

“When you’ve got five players out at any level of the game, winning three points is massive.

“It was another hard-fought win. It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing Chorley or Bradford, they’re all hard games, and this is another step forward.”

Gray recalled Nathan Cartman and gave a debut to goalkeeper Paul Woolston, signed yesterday on loan from Newcastle, due to Peter Jameson needing a rest due to a thigh injury.

Also unavailable due to injury were Chris Hunter, Josh Gillies, Kevin Burgess and Phil Turnbull, but Darlington started brightly.

Stephen Thompson volley deflected wide for a corner, the first of three in quick succession, the last of which saw Mark Beck head over, and soon after the tall striker got his head to another corner which was blocked.

It was Quakers’ fourth with only eight minutes gone in a strong start, one that fizzled out and saw Bradford have two off-target shots from distance by Sanchez Payne and ex-York midfielder Nicky Wroe.

But Quakers were unable to test keeper Joe Cracknell until midway through the half.

After Adam Mitchell’s cross, Cracknell palmed a Beck header into Nathan Cartman’s path, but the recalled striker snatched at it and blazed over.

Quakers were on top, 8-0 ahead on corners after half an hour, but Bradford came within inches of scoring from their first corner of the evening.

Tom Davie struck the post after Darlington failed to clear their lines, a corner won after Woolston made his first save when tipping wide Emile Sinclair’s header after a Wroe free-kick.

Darlington ended the half strongly, Cracknell saving from Terry Galbraith, and then Cartman hit the post on the turn after a free-kick was pumped into Bradford’s area.

Frustrated with the performance of Mitchell, Gray replaced him with Amar Purewal, “I wasn’t pleased with Adam Mitchell’s performance in the first half,” explained Gray. “I never hide anything, I don’t pull any punches, and I wanted to do better than that and he has done better in the past. If you don’t do better then you don’t play.”

But it was Bradford who made the breakthrough, Sinclair exposed a gaping hole in Darlington’s defence.

The debutant was allowed space in the centre of the six-yard box, Bradford’s first goal in four games, and Gray was furious.

“We’ve had to come from behind after conceding a soft goal,” he said. “There’s no reason we should be going 1-0 down today. It was a soft goal and I want to see it again.”

It soon should have been 2-0, Davie firing over from a good position.

Quakers were creaking, rocked by the goal. Much like at Nuneaton, another struggling team, Darlington were making lowly opposition look better Gray made another change, Hardy on for Thompson, and the remainder of the match was all Darlington.

Beck headed over from yet another pin-point Galbraith corner, and the next set-piece just evaded Beck and Gary Brown.

Quakers were getting closer, the team kept believing, and eventually came the moment they had been waiting for.

On 80 minutes, after a ball was whipped in from the left, super-sub Hardy turned the ball home.

And within two minutes Darlington had turned it around, from 1-0 down they led 2-1 when Galbraith’s corner evaded Cracknell.

It was an unlikely goal, but Quakers were not concerned and they safely closed out the game.

They remain unbeaten away from home and in good heart for Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Lancaster City.