ROOM for improvement is the polite way to describe Darlington's display in Saturday's 3-1 defeat to Barrow, a team who compete at two levels below the Quakers and finished sixth in the UniBond Premier League last season.

It is normally accepted during pre-season that teams may suffer one or two unusual results, such as Manchester United's 4-3 defeat against Celtic and Everton getting beaten by Tranmere, but managers will forever maintain it is the performance that matters and not the result.

And that's what is most alarming about the defeat at Holker Street because too many Darlington players didn't impress. With less than a week to go before the season kicks off, Gary Bennett knows his side still have some work to do in training. Bennett fumed afterwards: "What happened today is not acceptable.

"It's a wake-up call and it's good that we got one. You can't come here expecting to win because it doesn't work that way. "We had a good tour in Ireland but we're disappointed with today because they weren't the same as they were in Ireland and we've got to find out the reason why.

"I'm disappointed with the result and I'm disappointed with the performance. You're looking to beat these non-league sides but the game has taught us one or two things which we want to put right for next week."

A side with promotion aspirations should not lose to non-league teams in the manner Bennett's men did, although Quakers' second-half-showing - when they switched from 5-3-2 to 4-4-2 - proved more impressive than their performance in the first period.

Barrow took the lead on 20 minutes when slack marking allowed Lee Warren time to head home from a corner and the scoreline stayed that way until just after the break when Craig Liddle scored a copycat goal.

The commanding central defender headed home from a corner which was won after one of several Danny Mellanby shots was diverted wide.

The hosts' second and third strikes were almost identical, both goals coming from Darlington's right-wing with Nicky Peverell and Dave Round utilising the freedom of the penalty box to convert headers.

Reflecting on Quakers' below-par performance, Bennett admitted: "We improved second half but too many individuals didn't perform and no matter what level you're playing at, you can't make mistakes.

"You've got to take it on board and what's happened today has told me one or two things about the players."

* A Darlington XI won 2-0 at North Shields on Saturday with Neil Maddison and Adam Rundle scoring.

* Bennett has completed the signing of midfielder Gary Pearson from Durham City. Pearson, 24, who was an unused sub at Barrow, has signed a one year contract with a one year option on top of that.

* Howard Wilkinson is considering taking legal action against one of his former Leeds players, David Batty.

He is incensed at allegations that he derided Elland Road legend Billy Bremner.

The FA are to consider Batty's comments from his autobiography, which were revealed in a Sunday newspaper before deciding whether to take any action.

Batty claimed Wilkinson told him that Bremner ''may have been a great player but he wasn't such a good manager''.