Darlington are making life hard for themselves in their quest to reach a play-off spot and Saturday's performance against Shrewsbury Town took the biscuit.

Two consecutive defeats in a run of four matches without a win means Quakers have left themselves with much to do over the final 12 games if they are to reach their goal of extending their season for a third time.

A week ago Quakers were sitting in a healthy sixth position and even looking towards third place. But last Tuesday's defeat at play-off rivals Peterborough United and Saturday's miserable performance at home to the Shrews sees Darlington sink to tenth and their promotion hopes are waning.

Automatic promotion was always unlikely, it is now out of the question, but more worringly is that a badly timed dip in form and two daunting upcoming fixtures mean that even a top seven finish would be a major accomplishment. How they would fare in the play-offs is another matter entirely.

The next two games are at Leyton Orient and Rochdale, grounds where historically Quakers do not succeed having failed to win at either venue in a combined total of 24 visits, Brisbane Road 15, Spotland nine. Any supporters that had been mulling over a trip to the League Two play-off final during the last weekend in May will now be having second thoughts.

Six of the last ten games see Darlington with home advantage, but by that stage the season may be all but over unless they can break their hoodoo at either Orient or Dale.

Were it not for a tremendous piece of goalkeeping by Shrewsbury's Joe Hart then Quakers would have snatched an unlikely draw on Saturday.

With the last touch of the ball in a largely dull encounter, the England Under-20 international dived to his right to get a hand to Andy Cooke's header and in doing so ensured all three points deservedly went to Shrewsbury.

The visitors may not have been the best side to visit the 96.6TFM Darlington Arena this campaign, they would not even rank in the top five, but Quakers were so dire they did not deserve a point. If they had got one it would have only served to paper, thinly, over the cracks which are reappearing in Darlington's season.

Fortunately for Quakers, other results went in their favour so they remain only four points off seventh-placed Cheltenham, although the Robins hold a game in hand which do not play until mid-March.

By that time it could be irrelevant to Darlington whose manager, David Hodgson, has always managed to improve the season's final points total at Quakers year on year. Having finished recorded 72 last season he now has a real task on his hands if he is to maintain that record as Darlington chase their first promotion since 1991.

Only Rochdale have spent a longer consecutive number of seasons in the basement division - now in their 32nd year, Quakers are in their 14th - and Hodgson has alluded to Quakers' long stay in League Two as a motivational factor. He has also set a target of wining eight of remaining 12 games but that is a big ask, especially for a side who have only once won back-to-back games this season.

Despite Saturday's disastrous day, Hodgson refused to be too downhearted and instead pointed out that it was a rare poor showing from Quakers.

He said: "I am not going to be all doom and gloom on the back of one bad performance considering what we have been doing of late. We played very well at Peterborough but got beat, we played poorly today and got beat so next week who knows what is going to happen.

"I know that at this level, sooner or later, everything goes wrong and today was one of those days.

"I am not going to have a go at the players because that is the first time in a while that they have not performed. I have no qualms, today was one of those days, so we are just going to have to get on with it and see if we can win those eight games that we need from our 12 games.

"In years gone, players at this club were fighting for their lives at this stage but this year they are fighting to get the club promoted for the first time in 15 years.

"Maybe we should have stayed at home today.

"I could sense it before the game in the changing room.

"The first ten or 15 minutes indicated that it was going to be a bad day at the office and so it turned out."

He was not wrong. From the first whistle Darlington were lethargic, their build-up play predictable and the quality of balls played into Shrewsbury's penalty area poor.

Sadly, the most entertainment came from the new mascot, the Darlo Dog, whose antics on the sidelines kept fans amused between Quakers' miserable attempts at breaking through the Shrewsbury's defence.

This they managed occasionally, the best opportunity falling to Cooke but he lashed across goal when he should have at least hit the target against his hometown club, while Kyle Lafferty saw a cross-shot from the right-wing tipped wide by Hart.

Town's Kelvin Langmead spurned the best opening of the half when he allowed the ball to get stuck under his feet in the six yard box in the last seconds of the first half.

Cooke was frequently involved and his placed header, which bounced just wide following Ryan Valentine's cross, at the start of the second half suggested an improvement was to follow. However, it was only marginal and so it was no shock when Shrewsbury went ahead with a swift attack.

Ten minutes in, striker Mark Stallard lobbed Sam Russell, the ball rebounded off the bar and straight to Colin McMenamin to side-foot into the net.

Hodgson made a double substitution with Akpo Sodje and Neale McDermott coming on and Sodje's height made some impact - he had Quakers' first effort on target - but Darlington's lofted balls into the final third were easy pickings for the Town defence so chances of an equaliser were always slim.

It almost came in the very last seconds when Carlos Logan provided a pin-point cross for Cooke but somehow Hart got a hand to the header and soon followed the final whistle on what, as Hodgson admitted, had been "a bad day at the office" for Darlington.

Result: Darlington 0, Shrewsbury 1.

Read more about the Quakers here.