Matthew Tipton suspected his Bury side could benefit from out-of-form Sam Russell's less-than-convincing performance on Saturday - and so it proved.

Tipton came on as a second half substitute and deep into injury time he bundled the ball over the Darlington line from a poorly defended corner to snatch all three points and put a big dent in Quakers' play-off bid.

No defenders were anywhere near the striker who beat Russell to the ball, although the keeper felt he was impeded by Tipton who was booked for celebrating his vital strike by throwing his shirt into the crowd.

Russell was player of the year last season and has built a solid reputation but made a few errors on Saturday and these had not gone unnoticed by Tipton before his 72nd minute introduction.

The Welsh striker, a target of David Hodgson's last summer, said: "I'd been watching the keeper from the bench and knew that he'd been flapping at balls from set plays.

"So I said that I would go onto him and for some reason he stood behind me and he thought he could judge the flight of the ball, but he couldn't judge it as well as I could.

"I stood where I was and it landed on my toe and I just tapped it in. He didn't get anywhere near it."

The goal stunned Darlington as they had led 2-1 with ten minutes to play after Akpo Sodje's header from a Shelton Martis corner appeared to have handed the three points to Quakers.

Sodje had earlier missed a hat-trick of chances but his 80th minute goal looked to have won the game, until a late collapse shocked players and fans, many of whom had walked out before the final whistle.

"Nobody in the dressing could believe what happened," said Sodje after scoring his eighth goal of the season.

"Right now I do not know what to say, everyone is a bit shocked.

"After I scored the second goal I thought we were going to win the game against a side playing well, and that we would have a good chance of getting in the play-offs.

"Obviously everyone is feeling a bit down but I am not going to say that it is over because there are still six points to play for and we are just three points behind. We have still got a chance.

"We need other teams to lose and us to win, but that could happen because it has been happening over the last few weeks.

"If we get six points I think we would be back into seventh place."

* Peterborough caretaker boss Steve Bleasdale walked out on the club two hours before Satuday's 3-2 victory over Macclesfield Town.

"On Friday, Steve came to a board meeting, and clearly the dressing-room had a problem," Posh owner Barry Fry said.

"I offered to pick the side for the Macclesfield game, and Steve was fine. I spoke with him on Saturday, he was brilliant, but at 1.50pm, he sent me a text informing me he'd quit."

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