WINNING a penalty with only 36 seconds on the clock was about as good as it got on a disappointing day for Darlington.

Despite their early goal they went on to lose 2-1 to Tamworth, a prospect few would have envisaged following Terry Galbraith’s spot-kick.

While the performance was hardly disastrous, it was not of the standard set in recent weeks and so ended a run of eight unbeaten league matches in which goals had flowed.

Buoyed by a tremendous run of form that had propelled them up to second in the league, expectations rocketed and there had even been thoughts of overtaking leaders AFC Fylde, who visit Heritage Park this weekend.

But they are now four points ahead of Darlington, who Martin Gray admitted were below par at The Lamb.

“It happens. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, it happens. I wish we knew why because then we’d avoid it,” said the manager, who named an unchanged team on the back of the previous week’s 4-1 win at Harrogate Town.

“The ball retention was not good enough at times. In great areas we gave the ball away, which isn’t like us, it isn’t what we did last week when we were nice and slick and we counter attacked well.

“Today we didn’t counterattack as well, but it’s fine lines.

“It was not an horrendous performance, just below par.

“We actually started really well.”

They could not have started any better. Josh Gillies swung over a cross from the left into the six-yard box, where Mark Beck had his shirt pulled by Jack Lane.

It was the first time Quakers had won a penalty inside the first 60 seconds since Robbie Painter was felled by Crewe Alexandra keeper Mark Smith in front of the Polam End at Feethams in March 1994.

Whereas striker Painter picked himself up to score the only goal of the game, left-back Galbraith is the man Quakers trust from the spot and he netted his sixth penalty of the season.

He is now on eight goals for the campaign, and his next will be his 50th for the club.

However, Darlington did little more in the remainder of the half while Tamworth did not fold. They had a bit more about them than Harrogate, won the midfield battle, kept the ball better attacked frequently down their left.

Greg Mills gave Quakers right-back Liam Marrs a tough afternoon, while keeper Peter Jameson was man of the match, his involvement steadily increasing as the game went on, He was called on to deal with high balls into the penalty area before the break, but there was little he could to stop Tamworth’s two goals soon after the restart, both by Dan Newton.

Jameson felt he was impeded when attempting to deal with a Tamworth corner on 49 minutes, headed home by Newton.

“I was blocked and a runner blocked Gary Brown as well to let their lad score a header,” said Jameson.

“It was one of those moments when everyone is looking at the referee waiting for him to give a foul. I’m not making excuses, but we were really disappointed in the referee.”

Gray was in agreement, saying: “It should’ve been a free-kick. If you watch it back you’ll see it was a blatant free-kick for us. Their player blocks Gary Brown and the player Browny was marking scored the goal.

“It should not have been a goal, therefore the referee made a big mistake.

“The reason we went 2-1 down is that we didn’t do the basics right. We didn’t close down, we didn’t do the horrible side of the game well, so we were punished.”

Newton’s second goal came on 57 minutes, the climax of calamitous defending. Galbraith hoofed the ball skywards, Phil Turnbull was second to the loose ball and Newton was then allowed to turn on the edge of the box before shooting.

Darlington rallied. They threw men forward and Gray made three substitutions, Dave Syers, Tom Davie and Liam Hardy all appearing in the final third.

Gray said: “When you’re losing you’ve got to go for it, so we had an attacking formation towards the end of the game. We had two at the back at the end and we had one or two chances but didn’t have the rub of the green.”

Nathan Cartman came closest to a breakthrough, his volley blocked by the desperate lunge of right-back Andy Burns, while in injury time keeper James Belshaw tipped wide from Syers, but without Jameson the deficit would have been greater as he made several super saves in the second half.

“It’s one defeat in nine, but it’s still a defeat and I hate them,” added Gray.

“We hate to lose, but it’s about how we respond now and there’s no better game to do that with than Fylde.”

Fylde put five past Stalybridge, swiftly recovering from last week, when they too were toppled by Tamworth. Darlington will need an improvement when they face the full-time outfit this weekend, but will be without the suspended Gary Brown after he picked up his fifth booking of the season.