WHEN Will I See You Again was the apt song choice as disappointed Darlington fans trundled out of Blackwell Meadows.

Given the manner of Quakers’ collapse on Saturday, perhaps a break is needed and ideal timing given the game at National League North level may about to be suspended anyway.

The National League board meet again on Monday, and falling in line with almost all other levels of football in calling a halt to fixtures due to the spread of coronavirus is on the agenda.

There are plenty who believe they made a mistake in not suspending their season on Friday, including Darlington manager Alun Armstrong.

Among those who probably now wish they had done is Quakers’ Chris Elliott, who made major mistakes of his own on Saturday.

He had a stinker, Armstrong pointing to the goalkeeper’s gaffs for Darlington’s 4-2 defeat to Farsley Celtic, one that looked highly unlikely when Quakers led 2-1 after an hour.

Heavily on top and creating chance after chance, Darlington were heading for victory, one which may ultimately prove academic given the bigger picture, but on Saturday the match mattered and the points were within reach.

Yet, for the umpteenth time this season their finishing let them down, Elliott then lent Farsley a hand and the Yorkshire club could not believe their luck.

“We did enough to win the game, but it was mistakes for all four goals,” lamented Armstrong.

“Put it this way, they’ve had three shots and scored four goals.

“Chris came in afterwards and apologised, great, but the lads are fuming and I left it to them to sort out.

“It’s their team, it’s their group. We’ve got a great group in there, they all look after each other, but today feels really disappointing because if you look at the game overall we were dominant.”

It was the same last week at AFC Telford, Quakers in control but squandering chances, though at least they won 2-1 on that occasion.

Instead of making it back-to-back wins, Armstrong’s side have now won only one of their last seven games.

“We should’ve won four or 5-0 and nobody would’ve complained. It was a dominant performance, but you look at their goals and we’ve given them for goals…literally given them four goals.

“You’re not going to get anywhere if you do things like that.

“I’m gutted for the lads and gutted for the fans. I saw the lads’ heads go down after the third mistake, and it shouldn’t happen but they have given everything.

“The performance was really good, totally dominant, in control of the game and you end up not winning, it’s baffling.”

Omar Holness had given Quakers an early lead with his sixth goal of the season, calmly rounding the goalkeeper after Adam Campbell’s pass into the penalty area.

Darlington were excellent in moving the ball around, playing some very good football and opening up Farsley, and it was almost 2-0 with goalkeeper Josh Barnes saving from Campbell, but from nowhere it was 1-1 and nothing short of farcical.

Louis Laing played a back-pass, Elliott’s first touch was awful and he was closed down by Dave Syers, the ball ricocheting off the former Darlington man into the net. Farsley had scored without shooting.

On the Chris Brass scale of calamity, it was about as embarrassing as an error can be without kicking the ball into your own face and scoring an own goal.

Darlington had the better of it for the remainder of the half, Will Hatfield almost scoring a screamer from 30 yards which Barnes tipped over, but early in the second half Campbell was on the spot to restore the lead.

His fifth penalty of the season after Holness had been pushed by Adam Clayton - a soft decision - put him on 16 goals and gave Quakers a 2-1 lead, after which came numerous scoring chances but poor finishing meant addition to Darlington’s tally.

Justin Donawa missed the two best opportunities as Quakers cranked up the pressure and Farsley could not lay a glove on Darlington.

However, as Liverpool discovered last week, being dominant counts for nothing if you do not take your chances and your goalkeeper is having an off day and whereas Adrian let Liverpool down in the Champions League, Elliott did likewise.

On 68 minutes he allowed James Spencer’s shot from a tight angle to beat him at the near post. It was now somewhat remarkably 2-2 when Quakers should have been out of sight. And worse was to come.

Within three minutes Farsley gratefully accepted another gift and found themselves 3-2 up, this time Elliott fumbled Will Hayhurst’s free-kick, failing to push it over the bar and Syers tapped in.

He had now scored two goals from a combined distance of three yards, both down to errors by Elliott, who was now into hapless Quakers keeper territory previously occupied by James Speare, Ashlee Jones and Nick Liversedge.

There was no coming back now, the capitulation complete when Laing failed to track Clayton and he added the fourth goal with a stooping header after a free-kick.

Armstrong added: “Farsley ended up changing the formation because we were so much on top. The only threat they had was set-plays and they knew that. We were dealing with it quite comfortably until we gave a ridiculous goal away.

“Second half, we continued what we had been doing, the lads were on top. The penalty was fortuitous, I’ve seen them not given.

“You’d think we would capitalise but we missed so many chances after that, and the next three goals were comical.

“We were so well on top and I don’t know how to legislate for errors like that as a team. As a manager you never see them coming and when they come you’ve got to deal with it better.

“You expect one error in a game but not four. You get your head up and you get on with it, which the lads did, but the three goals after going 2-1 up were comical.”

Farsley have now done the double over Darlington, the first team to do so this season, while Quakers drop to 11th, six points off now distant play-offs.