Last week Tommy Taylor took up employment at Feethams as Quakers changed managers.

On Saturday they had a temporary manager in Mick Tait and even changed their shirts DURING the defeat to Hull City, but the poor run of form continues.

Against ten men Hull, of whom winger David Beresford was sent off for a nasty tackle just before the break, Darlington became very frustrated and simply ran-out of ideas against a team content to defend their advantage as soon as they went a goal ahead: Quakers lacked the quality to break down a resilient side.

Echoing many of the fans' complaints since the beginning of the season, Taylor wasted no time in identifying Quakers' problems and announced he would like to bring in another striker to support Barry Conlon.

And the need to add extra firepower to the squad is of greater necessity now than at any other time during the season as Danny Mellanby is set for a long spell on the sidelines with a knee injury, picked up after Hull's Nicky Mohan fell on him during the first half.

The 22-year-old sharp-shooter went into hospital on Saturday evening for a scan which will reveal the full extent of the problem, while defensive lynch-pin Craig Liddle looks certain to miss at least one match after limping off the field with a foot problem.

Hull put in a professional afternoon's work, especially in the second half so deserved their win. Owing to their shortfall in numbers, Hull worked hard to protect the single goal advantage, ensuring manager Brian Little enjoyed his return to Feethams where he won successive promotions a decade ago.

But Darlington would stand a far better chance of putting an end to the miserable run of four consecutive defeats if they could find the key to the shooting boots locker.

Despite a new, albeit temporary, manager in Tait, the same after match reason for defeat was evident.

"The result is massively disappointing because I thought we did enough in the first half to have won the game," bemoaned Tait who reverts to his role as second in command behind Taylor when they players report for training on Monday.

"We should've been two or three up by half-time but it's the same old story, if you don't score you leave yourself wide open to lose the game 1-0.

"It's happened for the last two home games now."

But Tait was honest enough in his post-match appraisal to admit his side didn't do enough to open up the visitors' packed defence.

He said: "We haven't created enough, we've had about four chances in the game. Two of Barry's shots hit the keeper and their lad didn't know anything about it but we haven't created enough for a home game.

"They made it difficult. The crowd was having a go, saying it was poor, but it's hard when a team sits back in their own half leaving us no space to play and they reduced us to playing long balls in the end and there's only Barry Conlon who can deal with the long ball game.

"They stayed back and left one lad up front and he kept dropping into midfield so they and every back sometimes, which left us no space to play and we couldn't create anything," added Tait who'd almost lost his voice by full-time, such was the amount of time he'd spent yelling instructions.

"We kept telling the lads to get it out wide and switch it to and drag them about to try and create a hole somewhere but it just didn't happen.

"I thought football-wise we totally out-played them but it counts for nothing unless you stick the ball in the net."

Hull's goal came just before half-time via a Gary Alexander penalty, awarded after Craig Liddle was wrongly adjudged to have fouled a theatrical Rodney Rowe. Some may say Rowe deserved his self-sustained arm injury, gained when 'falling' under Liddle's challenge.

Seconds later Beresford somewhat harshly received his marching orders for a foul on Phil Brumwell with referee Mike Jones losing control of the game as a plethora of late challenges flooded the game.

Hull then threw down the gauntlet to Quakers, challenging the home side to attack a highly-efficient and organised defensive unit, determined not to concede.

Darlington did force a handful of chances, but keeper Matt Glennon was equal to anything thrown at him but by playing hopeful long-balls, Quakers were playing into Hull's hands who more than capable of keeping the shackles on Conlon.

Indeed, the Hull performance will have been very recognisable to many Darlington fans, such was it's resemblance to the Brian Little sides of 1989/90 and 90/91.

Read more about The Quakers here.