WITH a hint of disappointment after Darlington were unable to pull off a FA Cup shock, manager Alun Armstrong has expressed his hope that some of the club’s record-busting crowd at Blackwell Meadows will be back to help.

There was an attendance of 3,006 recorded at Blackwell Meadows as Walsall, of League Two, eventually edged out their National League North counterparts in the FA Cup first round replay courtesy of Caolan Lavery’s header 22 minutes from time.

That was the biggest crowd recorded at the venue since Darlington returned to the town and the atmosphere was vociferous from start to finish, even after the Saddlers edged ahead.

There was applause around the ground after the final whistle in acknowledgement of Darlington’s performance against a team improving again under Darrell Clarke, despite sitting towards the wrong end of League Two.

“You are never happy,” said Armstrong. “I always want to progress. This was an opportunity for us. We had enough to cause an upset and it was just the fine detail about picking the last pass out, I can’t fault the lads. It was a great occasion for the town. I just hope they have seen enough to come back.

“This defeat is tough to take to be honest because they didn’t cause us too many problems. It was probably set plays that let us down, both boxes we weren’t good enough.

“We just didn’t have enough in the final third, but I thought we caused them problems especially first half when we had the opportunities. I am still proud of them.”

Darlington will hope to avoid any punishment for flares that were thrown on to the pitch in front of the BT Sport cameras because that should not detract from a fantastic occasion at Blackwell Meadows.

Now Armstrong will be looking to get Quakers on track again when they face Gainsborough Trinity in the FA Trophy this weekend – even though National League North progress is the major priority for the longer term.

And the former Middlesbrough striker and Blyth manager will not be thinking anything differently after Darlington collected £33,750 from last night’s televised replay.

He said: “In the teamtalk which we had straight after the game I said we have Gainsborough on Saturday, I want those levels again, then we can continue to focus on the league. The lads will have to pick themselves up and I am frustrated and a little disappointed.

“It was dour when I came in here. I knew what was wrong and what we had to do to fix it. There were nine players in the squad and it took up over two thirds of the budget so it was a massive rebuilding job. We are still doing it.

“Nothing changes after this and the players have to understand it. It is about being progressive. We want more, if we can just add that player we all know we are missing then we might just be able to do something.”

But he is convinced that with a new striker then Darlington will be better placed to attack the league.

Armstrong added: “I had a No 9 in Tyrone O’Neill but Middlesbrough called him back early. I have another two lads away on international duty with Bermuda (Osagi Bacome and Justin Donawa) and that does kill you.

“I look at the bench tonight and we had Louis Laing, Jordan Watson and the rest are 16-17 year-olds. I wanted them to experience the first team, and I am extremely proud of what the lads have put in and tinged with disappointment after that.”

Walsall manager Darrell Clarke, the former Hartlepool midfielder, was a relieved man. He said: “Oxford in the next round will be a totally different game to this one. We will probably go into it as the under dogs.

“This wasn’t a classic, Darlington made it tough early on. I think they edged the first half but we were in control second half. The cameras were here for one reason, they saw it as a potential banana skin, and we won a game that was ugly.”