DARLINGTON remain in play-off contention despite going down to a late goal at Aggborough on Saturday.

It was clear Quakers had done plenty of work on the training ground in trying to stifle the flowing play Kidderminster have shown this season, and while they were successful in that to a degree, they were beaten by two routine goals which could have been prevented.

But despite the defeat, only Quakers’ third in 11 away league trips this season, they are still nicely in the play-off positions as they hopefully head towards a new chapter in their history.

“We started the game very well, we had a gameplan, it worked well and we went 1-0 up,” said manager Martin Gray. “But unfortunately we conceded within 40 seconds of scoring, which is the biggest mistake you can make. Somebody didn’t do their job off the ball and Kidderminster were back in the game.

“Terry Galbraith had a great opportunity before we scored and Dave Syers had a great chance for a second, and had we done better in their box it could have been a different story at half-time.

“We did a lot of work during the week on defending and we limited them to chances in the final third.

“They had one chance from a free kick and scored one; we had five or six but didn’t make their keeper pull off any real great saves. There was one at the end which hit him, rather than him making a save, but we’ve come away disappointed to have taken nothing from the game.

“The players gave everything. We’re having a bit of a spell in which things aren’t quite going for us, but there’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves, we’ve got to stand up, stay together and get ready for the next game.

“We’re still in the mix and that’s good, but that doesn’t reflect on what we’ve done over the last four or five games. We’ve got to be better in both boxes because there hasn’t been a team that has dominated possession in big spells and hurt us. We’re dropping points through individual errors. Every time we make an error it becomes highlighted and we get punished.

“We’ve got to get better at that, but equally we must keep our belief and stick together. It’s a bit of a tough time, but nobody believes in the players more than I do. We’ll come through it, that’s for sure.”

Quakers started the game at a fast tempo and nearly took the lead on four minutes, when a cross by Liam Marrs was flicked on by Mark Beck and Terry Galbraith, ghosting in behind him, had his effort at full stretch blocked on the line by Harriers skipper Keith Lowe.

And that early promise was rewarded when Beck laid the ball off neatly on the left for Josh Gillies to burst past a defender and put the ball low into the middle for Syers to slide into the roof of the net.

Kidderminster levelled straight from the kick-off, which didn’t please Gray at all.

The hosts needed only four passes from the kick-off for Elton Ngwatala to find James McQuilkin bursting through unchallenged, and even though keeper Peter Jameson touched his left-foot shot on to the post, Tyrell Waite was on hand to score from the rebound.

Quakers regrouped though and did well to snuff out Kidderminster. There was an almighty goalmouth scramble that the home defence managed to clear, and on 37 minutes Quakers nearly regained the lead with a simple route-one move.

Beck neatly flicked on a long clearance by Jameson into the path of Syers, but the former Doncaster man put too much weight on the ball as he took it first time, and even though he beat the stranded Sam Hornby, he also cleared the crossbar.

Quakers broke up Kidderminster’s passing game as best they could in the second half, but didn’t create all that much themselves, apart from two blocked free kicks by Gillies and a header over the bar by Kevin Burgess from a Galbraith setpiece.

But straight after a break in play for a substitution, Harriers went in front on 77 minutes courtesy of a simple set-piece, which McQuilkin floated from the left to the far post for Lowe to head in.

Two minutes later, Jameson kept his side in the game by going down to his left to save a low penalty from Ngwatala, awarded by the referee for Gary Brown barging sub Mani Dieseruvwe to the ground as they chased a ball into the left side of the penalty area.

Quakers pressed but Stephen Thompson was just off target with a first-time shot from 25 yards, Beck headed wide from a Gillies cross, and Leon Scott’s deflected shot was well saved.