Gainsborough Trinity 3 Darlington 1.

Darlington manager Tommy Wright held an impromptu chat with two dozen supporters just seconds after Quakers disappointingly lost at Northolme.

Wright is still to savour a victory since he took charge six games ago, and on the final whistle he calmly walked 50 yards and chatted amicably for five minutes with around 20 supporters in the away end, some of whom he could hear criticising the team’s display, which saw them drop to fourth bottom of the table.

“The fans were obviously frustrated and I’m frustrated,” he said. “When you’ve got frustrated people, I can either, when the final whistle blows, go down the tunnel and hide away, or I can stand in front of people who have got something to say, and hear what they have to say.

“I think I did the right thing. I heard what the general feeling was, and I agree with quite a lot of it, and I disagreed with a lot of it. Every fan who has paid his or her money is entitled to an opinion but I’m paid as manager of the football club to do my job and I think it’s disrespectful to tell people what to do, when I don’t go into their jobs and tell them that they’re doing a bad job and they should do this and that.

“I think people have to give me a little bit of time. They’ve got to see the fact that injuries have killed us a little bit on Saturday. You can either say “fair enough” or it’s excuses. I’m an honest person, I’m hard-working, and I will get this right.”

Once again, though, Quakers were punished for their mistakes that saw them concede three goals again. “The game was all about taking three points. We keep saying the right things, have the right intentions and make the right noises, but something isn’t quite clicking. Individual errors were again apparent. Individuals have held their hands up and taken responsibility, and I haven’t got a problem with that, but we’re not learning from these errors.

“The absence of Luke Trotman affected what we wanted to do and so we decided to change the shape. We had to take off Terry Galbraith and Tom Portas because they were both injured, so we had to make two subs – I thought we got better after that – but then Dom Collins got himself sent off and I had to change the shape for the third time in 45 minutes, and that was probably why the lads looked a bit lost for a few minutes.

“The lads got criticised in the dressing room at half time. To wear the shirt, you’ve got to wear it with a bit of pride and a bit of passion, and I think three or four players didn’t come out of the changing rooms at the start of the game which was probably why we found ourselves 2-0 down. At least they showed a bit of fight and desire in the second half. Reece scored, and we had a golden chance when Greg Mills crossed from the left and Josh Gillies couldn’t quite get on the end of it. That was a turning point, and Gainsborough parked the bus. They weathered the storm, and hit us on the break for the third goal but again it was our mistake.”

Quakers now face tough back-to-back matches against third placed Harrogate Town, and Wright will await the results of fitness tests on Boxing Day morning, but it seems pretty likely that Galbraith and Portas will both be missing, and Luke Trotman will have a fitness test.

“We’ll have the players in early before the Harrogate game because we’ve got knocks now. I don’t know what system we can play, what players we’ll have available because two lads have withdrawn and Luke Trotman was injured before the game. But we’ll go into the game with the approach of winning it and hopefully the lads will go and respond.”

Quakers started with four at the back, but that plan changed when Gainsborough scored twice in the space of ten minutes.

A loose ball forward on 10 minutes was seized upon by former Darlington player Tom Davie, who made swift ground up the left and crossed perfectly to the far post where Ashley Worsfold headed past stranded keeper James Talbot.

Ten minutes later, a Darlington attack broke down on the edge of the Gainsborough penalty area, and the home side quickly moved up the other end, and Worsfold neatly flicked the ball on for Shane Clarke to wrong foot the defence and fire left footed into the top corner past Talbot.

Wright then subbed injured pair Galbraith and Portas, and replaced them with Josh Heaton and David Syers, and moved Stephen Thompson further forward from his starting position of right back, but he had to rethink again just before half time when Collins was red carded for a late tackle on Jordan Richards in front of the main stand. Quakers claimed that the referee’s judgement was adversely influenced by seven Gainsborough players surrounding him.

After a half time chat and re-organisation, Quakers were much better in the second half than they were in the first, and Gainsborough keeper Henrich Ravas had much more to do, saving from Greg Mills and Josh Gillies, while Heaton headed Phil Turnbull’s free kick against the post.

Quakers gained their reward for their spirit and hard work by pulling a goal back midway through the half, when Mills found Gillies on the right, and he drilled the ball into the six yard box where Ravas could only parry it to Reece Styche, who tapped in from a couple of yards.

Gainsborough were then perhaps fortunate to keep eleven men on the field when defender Nathan Stainfield caught Gillies with a high boot – a challenge arguably more dangerous than the one by Collins – but he was only shown yellow.

But any hopes of a point were dashed seven minutes from the end, when Richards headed the ball forward for Nathan Jarman to run through and place the ball into the bottom corner.

Darlington: Talbot, Thompson, Brown, Collins, Galbraith (sub Heaton 25), Mills, Portas (sub Syers 25), Turnbull, Caton (sub Marrs 44), Gillies, Styche.

Subs: Scott, Saunders.

Sending off: Collins.

Booking: Brown.

Gainsborough: Ravas, Evans, Jacklin, Clarke, Stainfield, Richards, C King (sub Lacey 80), L King, Jarman (sub Bateson 85), Worsfold (sub Simmons 78), Davie.

Subs: Warren, Storey.

Bookings: Craig King, Stainfield.

Referee: T Parsons.

Attendance 773.

Goals: Worsfold (10 mins, 1-0), Clarke (20 mins, 2-0), Styche (67 mins, 2-1), Jarman (83 mins, 3-1).