THE magical moment came deep into stoppage time for Harvey Saunders, the teenager becoming a local hero by heading home his first goal for Darlington to rescue a 2-2 draw.

In his third substitute appearance, Saunders’ intervention came just seconds after Worcester City had gone 2-1 ahead in a dramatic end to the game.

After seeing the 19-year-old head home a Gary Brown cross, manager Martin Gray was full of praise, and reckons Saunders, from Staindrop, has the quality and desire required to be successful.

Ordinarily such an achievement would grab the attention.

However, it provided only a fleeting moment of exultation, rescuing an otherwise dreadfully disappointing day for Darlington.

They were 1-0 up at third-bottom opposition with five minutes to go when Quakers contrived to throw away victory, coming within seconds of being the first team Worcester had beaten in 15 matches.

Lacking in form and confidence, they have lost three key players of late due to cost-cutting measures and a week earlier became the first team rock-bottom Altrincham had defeated since October.

Yet, rather than recording back-to-back wins for the first time since October, Darlington were thankful for Saunders saving them from embarrassment.

Due to Halifax and Stockport both drawing their respective games 0-0, a win would have moved Darlington up two places to fifth.

Instead, they stay seventh, left wondering how costly those two dropped points will prove come the final day of the season at Salford City, a fixture that becomes more ominous the closer it gets.

“We’ve played Wednesday-Saturday and it’s a long journey. No excuses for the boys, because we didn’t play well enough and it wasn’t our standard,” said Gray.

“Certain players need to get back to solid performances, and we’ve talked about that. But you’ll always take a point out of the game when you’re 2-1 down in the 93rd minute.

“I wasn’t happy with the performance. But you take a point at this stage of the season, it’s about picking points up.

“But we need to get back to putting in solid performances and being more resilient.”

There were no goals before the break during a first half Darlington edged, but they were vulnerable to the counter attack, as evidenced when striker Steven Craig raced away when beating the offside trap.

His finishing was off, bending the ball wide with only Ed Wilczynski to beat.

Kevin Burgess was bundled over inside the 18-yard box, one from the ‘seen them given’ category, and Gray fumed: “It’s a definite penalty and I’d like to see it again.

“I spoke to the referee at half-time and he said he might’ve got it wrong. It’s alright saying that at half-time.

“I don’t think there was any contact on the ball, Kev was ready to shoot and the Worcester player comes down on him and it’s a penalty.”

Gray had made two changes – Nathan Cartman and Phil Turnbull dropping to the bench – and switching to 4-4-2 to accommodate Josh Gillies, while Liam Hardy made his first league start since October.

“I was trying to freshen it up, giving lads an opportunity,” explained Gray.

“We’ve got a strong squad and you’ve got to trust people.”

Given the opposition, there may have been an element of Gray believing he could afford to change last Wednesday’s winning team, but he effectively backtracked an hour in by reverting to 4-3-3 and sending on Cartman, Turnbull and Saunders.

Cartman’s volley, pushed wide by Ethan Ross, won a corner, from which Darlington went 1-0 up.

Taken by David Ferguson, Dave Syers headed home his seventh for the club on 70 minutes.

But this season, so frail is the backline that there is always a chance of Darlington conceding.

Even amid the ignominious 2009-10 season, when Steve Staunton guided the club to relegation from the Football League, Quakers kept seven clean sheets.

The tally so far is two, Worcester ending hopes of a third with six minutes to go when Darlington did not deal with a ball from the left and Jordan Murphy rammed home.

But Worcester stunned Quakers by taking the lead three minutes into stoppage time.

After Darlington gave the ball away in attack, Murphy raced down the left, rounded Wilczynski and slid the ball home, putting Worcester on the verge of their first win since November.

But then Saunders came to the fore, making his mark by deftly heading home, the ball arching into the net from Brown’s pinpoint delivery.

Despite the relief, it can only be viewed as two points dropped.

“I don’t want to dig people out, but there’s certain parts of the field didn’t do as well today as we did against Altrincham,” said Gray.

“We should be dominating the game, as we did on Wednesday. It was a tough game on Wednesday on a heavy pitch, and then we’ve had a long journey here, so you’ve got to take that into account. Players looked a yard or two off at times, but we’ve got to be better. It’s a point gained, but it’s also two points lost.”