DARLINGTON assistant manager Darren Holloway said that he and manager Alun Armstrong couldn’t have asked for more from the players in their 1-0 defeat at AFC Fylde on Tuesday night.

Quakers went down to a late goal at Mill Farm, but their overall performance against a full-time outfit pleased the management team.

“Our performance on Tuesday compared to Saturday was like chalk and cheese,” said Holloway. “We put it to the lads after Saturday’s game that we wanted more intensity and urgency from them, and we got those in abundance. There were many times when we forced Fylde into mistakes.

“It’s gutting to come away after a good performance like that with a defeat. We didn’t deserve to get beat. I think it was an all-round great performance, the lads worked their socks off all the way through the game.

“We couldn’t have asked for any more from the lads. The intensity levels were much improved from our previous game against Prescot Cables. We got in their faces, we disrupted them, made it hard for them and limited them to just a couple of chances – they didn’t have many for a home team who are favourites to go straight back up.

“We were very pleased with the performance and we’ll take a lot of positives from it and move on.

“Reidy (Sean Reid) had a couple of chances in the game, one in the first half and a header in the second half which he couldn’t get over the top of. There were chances as well.

“It’s baffling, because it’s hard to comprehend how we came away with nothing.”

Quakers’ next game is on Saturday behind closed doors against Kidderminster at Blackwell Meadows, kick off 3pm. They will be looking at the fitness of strikers of Adam Campbell and Luke Charman, who both came off during the game.