Darlington 0, Walsall 0.

Six wins and five draws in their last 11 games is title-winning form but despite clawing their way back into play-off contention with a run that matches their longest unbeaten sequence since 1996, Darlington could be forgiven if they felt crest-fallen after Saturday's game.

An entertaining draw with the second-placed team, which could easily have been a victory had they not wasted their chances, would ordinarily be deemed a good result.

But Stockport County and Wycombe Wanderers - the clubs immediately above them in League Two - both won 3-0 to leave Dave Penney's side still lagging behind the play-offs.

They went into the weekend two points behind seventh place, and despite 11 unbeaten League Two matches they are still four points off seventh-placed Wycombe who have still an extra game to play.

It all means that Quakers have got to keep winning simply to reach their Buckinghamshire rivals, and then keep on winning merely to stay ahead of them.

Easier said than done, but with ten games still to go and both Stockport and Wycombe still to visit the 96.6TFM Darlington Arena, seventh-place is still attainable, especially if they can maintain the form shown in Saturday's second half.

As scoreless draws go, it was about as good a game can be but there has never been a goalless game that would not have been improved by a goal and Darlington came closest to getting it.

Micky Cummins spurned several scoring opportunities, Julian Joachim missed a simple chance and Ian Miller headed against the woodwork while, in comparison, none of Walsall's ten efforts at goal were even on target but, with Wycombe winning, it all felt almost in vain.

Penney refused to get to down-hearted about the respective results of Darlington and Wycombe, saying: "We can't do anything about other teams' results, all we can do is look after ourselves. We've got a draw against the second-placed team, which isn't a bad result, and we're certainly pleased with the performance.

"We just lacked a cutting edge, we missed chances. The best two were Julian's and Ian's but it was a good performance from us, we created loads of chances and I'm just disappointed we didn't get all three points.

"Our keeper did not have a shot to save but we had lots of half chances which did not go our way. The lads are disappointed they have played the team that were top of the table for a long while, come close to winning but have failed to do so.

"It bodes well for the future because, on today's performance, Walsall are no better than us.

"All we can do is keep picking points up, keep this run going and hope the teams above us slip up."

Walsall showed in flashes why they led the table for so long with some fine passing movements, although neither side did much to hurt one another during a tense first half in which Gregg Blundell saw a header cleared off the line.

Just before the half hour mark came another escape for Walsall when Joachim, handed a recall after scoring the winner at Torquay United last week, could not get enough contact on a header when stood with his back to goal.

They were Quakers' best two chances before the break and although Walsall created opportunities of their own, not once did they test goalkeeper Sam Russell, handed a recall as Lee Jones was suffering from a groin strain.

Ignoring a couple of long-range hopeful punts, the Saddlers' best chance fell to top scorer Martin Butler who clipped a shot past the near post following good play up the left.

Early in the second half a couple of electrifying Neil Wainwright runs brought the game to life and created an opportunity which Cummins volleyed straight at keeper Clayton Ince and a minute later the same player put a header into Ince's hands.

Midway through the half, and with Darlington in the ascendancy, a goal seemed inevitable and when Clark Keltie crossed to Miller the deadlock appeared to be broken. But instead the ball bounced back into play, off the top of the post before being cleared.

Although Darlington's need for the three points was arguably greater than Walsall's, both sides continue to have chances with Butler getting too much contact on a flicked header to spurn a chance similar to Joachim's first half miss before Cummins spurned his third chance of the day, putting a header wide.

As the clock ticked away, an indication that Darlington were satisfied with their play came with the fact Penney ignored the substitutes at his disposal, instead kept the faith with his starting XI and 4-4-2 formation, believing that eventually a goal would come.

Tommy Wright was eventually thrown on in the final minute but the game was as good as over by then, and Penney said: "If you look at the bench, how could we have improved things?

"I thought our two strikers were excellent, our wingers were playing well, Micky was getting chances and Clark was running things from midfield so there was not a lot more we could do.

"Sometimes if you make a change you can make things worse. I just thought that, as things stood, there was a goal in it for us but as it turned out it just wouldn't come for us.

"On another day we'll play worse than that and two or 3-0."