After four miserable seasons, each bleaker than the previous, Darlington's fortunes have been showing signs of a turnaround.

But for all their improvement on and off the pitch it's fair to say that in cup competitions they could still do better.

To be frank, they're on an awful run.

Quakers have fallen at the first hurdle in each of their last four attempts in the various knockout competitions and on Saturday looked set to make that five consecutive defeats until a remarkable turnaround which at first threatened to hand Darlington the most fortunate of wins only for it to be snatched away cruelly, but not unfairly.

Yeovil Town grabbed a controversial injury time equaliser, scoring moments after Brian Close was harshly red-carded for a professional foul and from the resulting free-kick the visitors scored to condemn Darlington to a replay - history says the club aren't very adept at them either.

The club has won only one of their last eight FA Cup rematches and even that solitary success was on penalties at non-league Solihull Borough; omens for a Darlington success when the teams go head-to-head next week are not good.

But with four minutes of normal time to play on Saturday at the Williamson Motors Stadium, Darlington certainly were looking good for a place in the second round, Clark Keltie having popped up to snatch his fifth career goal - the first with his head.

But for the right to play at Histon on December 4 Darlington must again do battle with the Somerset club thanks to Bartosv Tarachulski's goal which came with four seconds remaining.

To make the bitter pill even tougher to swallow the free-kick, taken by Yeovil before falling to Tarachulski near to goal, appeared to be taken at least ten yards forward from Close's infringement.

After clawing their way back into the contest after being seemingly dead and buried, the goal was tough on Darlington.

But they say good luck has a role to play in football - perhaps Quakers exhausted their entire quota of FA Cup fortune almost five years ago when despite losing in round two they were drawn as 'lucky losers' to face Aston Villa in round three.

That was a never to be repeated stroke of luck but since then Darlington have been spared little good fortune in the world's greatest knockout competition.

In 2002, they would have welcomed Newcastle United in round three had Barry Conlon scored from the penalty spot to make it 3-0 against Peterborough, instead his effort landed in the South Park duck pond and the Posh went on to earn a replay, which they won.

And just over a year later Arsenal were paired with Farnborough after the non-league side won at Feethams.

The aim for all clubs outside the top two divisions is to safely navigate the first couple of rounds before hopefully landing a Newcastle or an Arsenal, just like Yeovil did last season when they were given a tie with Liverpool, which is precisely what Darlington would have had in 1996 had they not lost a replay to Rochdale.

So, with a big cup tie still the dream, in Saturday's programme notes manager David Hodgson called on his players to show more consistency.

Unfortunately they were anything but as they put in two contrasting 45 minutes that at least provided value for money if not the desired result.

Quakers were outclassed in the first half by the best footballing side they have faced this season.

The Glovers play an attractive, attacking game that succeeded in carving up Quakers on numerous occasions.

But despite creating several scoring opportunities, they found themselves 1-0 down at the break thanks to Alun Armstrong's close-range header.

Perhaps Darlington were fortunate that the visitors' leading scorer Phil Jevons, was out injured but had they a player of Clyde Wijnhard's potency then it's quite likely Yeovil would have been four goals clear.

An indication of Darlington's new-found financial standing and ambition has been their ability to persuade Wijnhard to sign an 18 month deal.

Contracts of such length have been rarely handed out at Darlington in recent years, especially to those the wrong side of 30, but Wijnhard, at 31, can still be an exceptional player; he's strong, quick and has the ability to launch the kind of thunderbolt shots that his pal, Middlesbrough's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, is renowned for.

The pair are friends from their time together at Leeds and on Saturday another of Wijnhard's mates, Newcastle's Patrick Kluivert, was in the stands cheering on his fellow Dutchman.

He probably had his head in his hands when Wijnhard managed to side-foot a volley wide from four yards just before half-time.

The miss was to prove costly because by the 55th minute Yeovil were 2-1 up. However, Darlington eventually played their way back into the game and it was from Wijnhard parried shot that Armstrong swept home the equaliser with 17 minutes to play.

Darlington, perhaps mindful of their poor replay record, as well as the prospect of a midweek trip to Yeovil which will be followed by a trek to Cheltenham, went for broke and were rewarded for their determination when Keltie headed past Chris Weale.

But there was still time for more drama as Close conceded a free-kick after, in the referee's view, denying a clear goalscoring opportunity by handballing a through-ball.

In stark contrast to many, referee Phil Joslin cannot have spotted the covering Matt Clarke and reckoned Close was the last Quakers player so brandished a red card.

In the melee that followed Joslin must have lost his sense of direction because he then allowed Yeovil to take the resulting free-kick deep into Quakers' half and from the set-piece, which was initially blocked, Tarachulski stunned the hosts by poking home his team's third goal, the first time Darlington have conceded so many this season.

Quakers have won just three of their last 14 cup games and after Saturday's roller-coaster, a draw which felt like defeat, perhaps it's time a slice of cup fortune came Quakers' way.

After the manner of Yeovil's third goal they'll certainly feel they're owed some.

Read more about the Quakers here.