A SPIRITED fightback at Ashton United saw Darlington fightback from 2-0 behind to claim a point and put Saturday’s horror show behind them.

They lost 3-0 to Altrincham at the weekend, a scoreline that could easily have been higher had the opposition taken more of the numerous chances Darlington porous defence allowed them.

And yesterday could have been a repeat, Tommy Wright’s team being 2-0 down at the break.

But in the face of what would have been another morale-sapping defeat, Quakers showed resolve to fight back in a second half in which they did almost all of the pressing, Stephen Thompson and Harvey Saunders grabbing the goals.

Wright’s side even came close to finding a third goal in the closing stages.

But, without Terry Galbraith, Dom Collins, Joe Wheatley and Alex Henshall and with four teenagers on the bench, Quakers can take solace from a display better than Saturday’s.

Wright said: “We can be content with our work and I’m happy with the reaction, but I still think we should’ve won it. I thought the same against Spennymoor and Blyth.

“We have played well today and were unfortunate to be 2-0 down,

“We dominated possession, we pressed them really well, the energy was there for everyone to see and we were unlucky not to come away with the three points.”

Last season Darlington won 3-2 at Leamington despite being 2-1 down at one stage, a game pinpointed as being a turning point in Wright’s tenure, and they almost did the same yesterday.

“We nearly won it,” added Wright. “We spoke about Leamington at half-time, about having setbacks and bouncing back, and having a result to use as a catalyst to kick-start our season, and we nearly got it.

“There’s lads here who weren’t at the club when we had the Leamington match, but they know about it, we’ve talked about it before.”

Saturday’s dreadful display was the team’s worst since losing 3-0 at home to South Shields a year ago, though some supporters have likened it to the dark days under Steve Staunton.

Nonetheless, an improvement was required, yet just eight minutes in Darlington were 1-0 behind.

It was a very nice finish by Matthew Chadwick, his fourth goal of the season.

Receiving possession on the left in a position deep inside Darlington’s half, from 20 yards he hit a shot with the outside of his left foot, the ball arching above Jonny Maddison’s hand into the top corner.

It was the fourth game in a row Darlington have conceded first, and means they are yet to keep a clean sheet after Maddison was beaten for the 16th time.

He was soon almost beaten for a 17th time, but Maddison pushed wide Kyle Jacobs’ effort.

Darlington recovered, mounting several attacks which came to nothing, but had two penalty shouts within a couple of minutes, the first being a particularly strong appeal when Luke Trotman was felled.

The full-back had cut inside Matthew Regan, the Ashton skipper taking his legs away but the referee Aaron Jackson said no, and he had the same response when Matthew Regan knocked over Jordan Nicholson.

Nicholson was playing alongside Reece Styche in a 4-3-3 formation that saw Dave Syers and Harvey Saunders make their first starts of the season.

A Ben O’Hanlon pass over the top ahead of Syers put the midfielder one-on-one but Ashton’s Luke Pilling was quick off his line to alert enough to avert the danger, and within 60 seconds Quakers were 2-0 down.

It was another impressive finish, Bradley Jackson cutting from the right and chipping Maddison.

Wright said: “The first one was a great goal, he bent one in from 20 yards with the outside of his foot into the top corner.

“But the second goal reminded me of Spennymoor’s first goal – was it a cross or a shot? I do think we could’ve prevented it, Ben O’Hanlon knows he could’ve got a bit tighter.

“Other than those two goals we defended really well.”

The referee turned down a third penalty appeal when Samuel Sheridan barged Nicholson, but he finally pointed to the spot early in a pulsating second half that Darlington dominated against nervy opposition.

Ashton blew a two-goal lead against Southport at the weekend and were clearly worried they were going to do the same again.

Quakers were well on top for lengthy spells and, after Styche headed into Luke Pilling’s arms, they were handed a lifeline on 54 minutes with Thompson’s 86th goal for the club.

The penalty was his second of the season, blasted high into the net in characteristic fashion, awarded Styche was felled by Jacobs.

Compared to the first-half penalty appeals this was the weakest of the lot, but Quakers were not complaining, and neither were there any grumbles when Jonny Burn escaped with felling Chadwick inside Darlington’s penalty area.

Wright admitted: “They should’ve had a penalty, and we probably should’ve had two more on top of the one we got, and the one we were given was probably the softest of the lot.”

Ashton were unlucky not to be further ahead when Craig Hobson turned and volleyed at goal, the ball bouncing on the line after thumping off the underside of the bar, but the linesman said no goal and instead of being 3-1 down within seconds Darlington were level at 2-2.

It came on 76 minutes after Styche’s long-range shot had been parried, Saunders in the right place at the right time to poke home the crucial goal on what was his 50th appearance for the club.

Both teams had chances in a manic final ten minutes, and Darlington had a fifth penalty appeal in injury time, this time for handball as Saunders forced his way into the area, but it was not to be.

“The run that we’ve been on hasn’t been good enough, but I’m confident we will come through this,” Wright added.

“Hopefully the lads will take confidence from today and we can build on it on Saturday."