THERE was probably a greater chance of winning Friday’s £154m EuroMillions jackpot than there was of correctly forecasting Darlington’s recent results.

Until late January Darlington had won five games all season in 27 league matches.

Yet a renaissance began at Leamington on January 27, Stephen Thompson’s injury-time goal securing a 3-2 win having been 2-1 down, and here we are now with Quakers among the in-form teams in the National League North.

Since Leamington they have beaten play-off chasing Blyth, Bradford PA and now Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday, Thompson again scoring in injury-time to win 2-1.

Kidderminster had not lost a league away game since September, but Quakers have onw taken four points from this season.

It’s a run of results that has given rise to optimism as well as shushing the moans and groans about Tommy Wright that had grown during his first few months in the job, as a response to winning one of his first 12 fixtures.

He appears to have developed an attack-minded team by using the in-vogue 4-2-3-1 formation, the outcome being 12 points from 15.

He said: “The strength in depth is there and I back us against anybody. If we play to our strengths and don’t make the mistakes that we were making earlier then I fancy us against anybody.

“The penny has dropped now. Me telling them I want them to play more doesn’t mean I want you to play in and around your own 18-yard box. It’s taken time, but the penny has dropped.”

Continue their form into March and who knows where Darlington will finish. Play-offs? No, that’s too ambitious, and Wright knows it’s next season when such ambitions could be realised.

The priority, despite the improved results, is to secure safety as there remains a threat of relegation.

Third-bottom’s Telford win means Quakers remain five points away from the drop zone, but it’s not unreasonable to look up the table rather than down.

Wright said: “Finishing 14th or 15th is nothing to me, we’re aiming higher. The end goal is to get in the play-offs, but it’s probably not going to be this year.

“I would hate to fall short by two or three points, because we have dropped two or three points (this season) and that would bug me all summer.

“At the minute I just want to win games, secure our level of football and take that form into next season.”

Among the most in-form players is beanpole centre-back Josh Heaton, Saturday seeing him collect another man of the match award and this time having played alongside 19-year-old Jack Vaulks for the first time.

The pair have a combined age of 40, while other youngsters making their mark are Luke Trotman, 20, Joe Wheatley 21, Harvey Saunders, 20, plus 19-year-old Aynsley Pears, on loan from Middlesbrough, who have a real talent on their hands.

Heaton again took the plaudits though, especially after scoring his first goal for the club.

He kept his cool to put Quakers ahead after 11 minutes, side-footing home at the second attempt after Reece Styche had challenged goalkeeper Jonathan Flatt for a high ball hoisted in by Phil Turnbull from a free-kick.

Darlington had the lead but Kidderminster held more of the possession. In their yellow shirts and red shorts – a mixture of home and away kit – they looked like 1980s Watford, but played nothing like them, their patient passing approach opening up Quakers numerous times in the first half.

James McQuilkin was guilty of a couple of awful misses, and Pears made a number of saves, among them stopping a Declan Weeks free-kick and then blocking George Waring’s follow-up.

Kidderminster were less threatening in the second half, while Darlington spurned opportunities for a second goal; Ryan Croasdale got a foot in to stop a Dave Syers shot and Styche hit the post.

Kidderminster equalised with 12 minutes to go, just when they appeared to have ran out of steam, but Pears will not enjoy watching back a rare error.

It was similar to Quakers’ first goal, a high ball from the right, Pears beaten to it by Joe Ironside and the substitute striker tapped in when the ball rebounded off a post.

Wright said: “I was gutted for Pearsy. He shouldn’t have come for the ball and he now knows that too, he realised it pretty quickly.”

Ironside had replaced Waring, a like for like change in Harriers’ attack and Wright said: “Kidderminster are very much like Harrogate, they don’t seem to want to put two big lads together.

“For me, if they had left George Waring on and then put Joe Ironside alongside him and lumped a lot of balls into the box that would’ve been a different dimension.

“But they’ve got their way, they believe in their way and it’s admirable. Me and a lot of other managers would try to find another way.”

What Darlington found on Saturday was a way to win.

With 90 minutes up Thompson repeated his late Leamington heroics, illustrating why he was so badly missed in the 3-0 loss at Brackley last week, by dribbling into the penalty area and blasting beyond Flatt.

“If we kept Kidderminster at bay and tried to limit their chances, we knew we would create enough to win,” added Wright.

“We were a little bit wasteful, maybe a bit unlucky at times, but ultimately got the goal and I do like the late ones.”