WHILE Darlington’s campaign remains alive, in tenth position as they jostle for play-off contention, one certainty already is that Will Hatfield will win their player of the year award.

Get the trophy engraved now, do not bother with a vote, it is a done deal.

There remains almost a third of the campaign to go, 13 matches, yet he is as certain to win the individual honour as Liverpool are to win the Premier League title.

Whereas the mighty Reds have romped ahead with minimal competition, it would be unfair not to mention the contributions of some of Hatfield’s team-mates: Michael Liddle and Adam Campbell, plus Alex Storey too, though nobody has had as much influence on a consistent basis as the Yorkshire titan.

The Leeds-based former Guiseley midfielder has been a shoo-in for some time in his first campaign with Quakers.

His game is all about energy, making crunching challenges, regaining possession and driving the team forward with goals a bonus when they come, and when they do they’re usually special, such as Saturday’s screamer.

During the 58th minute at Aggborough he emphatically hammered home his player of the year status by adding the goal of the season title too.

Collecting possession just inside Kidderminster Harriers’ half, he nudged it forward with one touch to advance into a central position around 30 yards from goal, briefly looked up at his target and then larruped the ball over the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Will Mannion.

One nil. Pick that one out.

“What a hit that was,” said manager Alun Armstrong. “I was totally in shock, but that’s what he does, he comes up with these wonder goals.

“I didn’t score goals like that, no chance! I scored in the penalty box, not many from outside it.”

After scoring his third goal of the season, each of them away from home and from outside the penalty area, Hatfield admitted: “It was a great strike. I’ve seen on Twitter it was described as the keeper having misjudged it, but it was probably one my best strikes and one of the best goals of my career.

“I’m really proud of that goal, but we couldn’t hold onto the lead a bit longer because if we had done we would’ve gone on to get the three points.”

The goal will live in the memory, one of three stand-out moments from an otherwise drab encounter and deserved to win the game, yet Darlington did not merit more than a point from the 1-1 draw.

Nobody could begrudge Kidderminster their equaliser four minutes later and it too was fine strike, Alex Prosser volleying home from 18 yards after the ball had dropped nicely following a headed clearance.

However, before Hatfield and Prosser scored Harriers’ Ed Williams endured a moment ripe for viral video content, stumbling over the ball when presented with a gaping net 12 yards out.

In fairness, left-back Sam Austin was culpable too. He had only goalkeeper Liam Connell to beat, yet elected to pass and his delivery was a touch behind Williams.

“I couldn’t believe it,” admitted Armstrong. “He stopped and then he fell, I couldn’t understand it, to say I was relieved is an understatement, but the pass was actually behind him.”

This was at 0-0 soon after the restart, the teams apparently agreeing to come out for the second half on account of the spectators having not walked out in protest after a very poor first 45 minutes.

It was tough going, particularly for the 161 Darlington fans present whose ironic cheer when Stephen Thompson had the team’s first shot in first-half injury time said it all.

Looking to instigate improvement after suffering back-to-back 3-0 defeats against Chester and Guiseley, Armstrong had made three changes to the starting XI: Terry Galbraith, Thompson and Campbell.

But Kidderminster had far more of the chances in each half, 18 in total to Quakers’ three Kidderminster manager Jimmy Shan later claimed, with Connell making a number of saves.

Shan said: “We were creating, we were the dominant team and we restricted the opposition. Any other day, if you’re that dominant and a little bit more clinical around the final third and the 18-yard box we come away as three or 4-1 winners.”

What was a satisfactory point restores some of Quakers' confidence ahead of Tuesday’s trip to third-placed Boston United.

“You’ve got to nip it in the bud early because once you start them runs it’s hard to get out of them,” said Armstrong. “So we needed to come here and be difficult to play against, which I think we did.

“The last couple of results, conceding six goals and not scoring any, it affects confidence and it is a massive thing in football.

“But the lads dug in exceptionally well and Kidderminster are in a false position, everyone knows that, and they’re a full-time team don’t forget.

“We worked extremely hard, there’s still things we need to improve on, we know that, but we needed to get a result, we needed to stop the rot.”