ALL the hope, all the excitement, it ebbed away inside 90 deflating minutes. It was only one game, there's 41 more to come, but it made for a sobering experience.

It was Darlington’s first home defeat on the opening day of the season since Marco Gabbiadini’s debut, 20 years ago against Barnet, a season that ended in 11th position. They hope to do much better this time around.

In the 11 months since Darlington lost 1-0 to Curzon Ashton last season Quakers’ have undergone a major overhaul, coaching and playing staff included, so it was perhaps fitting that the fixture computer provided them with a match against the same opposition to begin a new era as Tommy Wright started his first full season at the helm.

He signed seven players over the summer further to making several additions last season during which time Quakers enjoyed a good run, culminating in excitement being created and hopes raised.

But on Saturday signs of improvement were not immediately obvious for the most part as Darlington were disappointing and again lost to Curzon, 2-1 this time.

This, despite taking the lead and starting very well. Initially Darlington, with five debutants in the starting XI, were the better team, they created chances, Simon Ainge scored, the sun was shining and everybody was happy.

But then Curzon were handed an equaliser, almost literally, and thereafter Darlington were poor.

“We did enough to win in the first half an hour, but half an hour isn’t enough,” admitted Wright.

“The equaliser changed it and I think the lads felt sorry for themselves. I don’t think the lads handled that goal very well.

“When our lads are fluent they’re happy and they’ve got a smile on their faces, they’ve got a freedom to play and that’s when we’re at our best.

“When we’re tense and nervous we don’t seem to handle it very well.

“We knew that we were going to have less possession than them today. They are probably one of the best possession-based teams in this league, and although we want to play football we were more direct than they are.

“They are happy to go from side to side they caused us problems, but the way we set up today we were always going to get done in wide areas.

“We tried to penetrate them through the middle, our game-plan was working for 25 minutes.”

Clearly it is too early to be drawing conclusions. It was worrying, however, that Darlington did not have a response to the equaliser, seemingly lacking creativity.

The final hour was in stark contrast to the opening stages. In fact, new-look Darlington won a corner after only 14 seconds, Jordan Nicholson’s cross being defected wide, and it set the tone.

Ainge’s back-post looping header after Joe Wheatley’s corner on 14 minutes put Quakers ahead and got the striker off to the ideal start with his first goal after joining from Harrogate Town.

Strike-partner Reece Styche almost joined him on the scoresheet with a 40-yard opportunist effort that caught out the Curzon ’keeper but skimmed the top of the net, and then Terry Galbraith saw a header bounce wide after another pin-point Wheatley corner.

But from Curzon’s first corner they equalised, a goal out of the blue. It was taken short, Mason Fawns providing the delivery, and while Jonny Maddison was challenged he was unable to catch it cleanly, the ball dropping over the line.

The goalkeeper later said: “I’m not going to make excuses because I’m not that kind of person. If I feel I could’ve done better with something I’ll hold my hands up and say so, and I said that at half-time.

“I could’ve done better. Maybe it could’ve been a foul, but I’m not making excuses.”

Darlington did not recover.

After a delay to the beginning of the second half – Quakers kitman Gary Smith to the rescue to repair a goal net – Darlington went 2-1 down on 53 minutes, Connor Hughes ghosting in to head home a cross by Paul Marshall.

A frustrated Wright said: “We’ve given them so much space, they worked the ball into the box we lost the header – I don’t know whose runner it was, but it ended up in the back of our net – and it’s frustrating.

“It happens - I don’t think their manager will be too pleased with the goal we scored.

“I’m not going to read too much into today, both goals were preventable, first-day rustiness or however you want to dress it up.”

Minutes later came a pivotal moment as Darlington hit the crossbar when Tom Elliott should have done better, a chance wasted, and Curzon had more opportunities to score the next goal.

Maddison made amends by clawing the ball off the line after Jonathan Hunt’s downwards header from a corner, and then saved a Hughes penalty, awarded after Ben O’Hanlon was sent off for deliberate handball.

In the closing stages Quakers had penalty shouts of their own when Styche and Ainge went down in the box, but referee Andrew Kitchen was not interested.

With trips to Spennymoor Town tomorrow and on Saturday to Brackley, who finished third last season, Quakers’ fresh start will undergo two more tests of their new team.