A RAMPANT Darlington cruised to their first league win of the season in convincing style with a 3-0 victory at Curzon Ashton.

Curzon were lucky it wasn’t more as Quakers produced some top-quality passing football that left the Manchester side floundering, and put them in a great frame of mind for Saturday’s FA Cup first-round tie at Swindon.

“It was a fantastic performance from start to finish, maybe the only argument is that we didn’t score enough,” said manager Alun Armstrong. “We could have been three or four nil up at half-time. That second half was outstanding, and we were picking Curzon up for fun when the game was stretched. I couldn’t complain about the lads, they were top drawer.

“Our football was exciting to watch. Luke Charman’s link up play was very good, and there were three magic men coming off him. I got a little bit twitchy in the second half while it was still 1-0, but once the second goal went in, it was just about game over.”s.”

The excellent playing surface clearly suited Quakers, whose speedy front four of Charman, Erico Sousa, Adam Campbell and Jarrett Rivers caused chaos, with the Curzon defence unable to handle them.

They nearly scored in the first minute when Rivers crossed into the middle for Sousa, who signed last week from Tadcaster, to head wide.

Campbell ended another swift break when he fired over the bar, but he made no mistake on 14 minutes when a quick ball forward by Nicky Hunt caught the Curzon defence square, and he neatly slotted the ball past keeper Cameron Mason.

The second goal deservedly came on 67 minutes when Ben Hedley, who had a very good game at right-back, found Campbell in the box, and he chipped the ball perfectly to the far post where Sean Reid headed in.

Seven minutes later, the points were heading Quakers’ way when Charman helped a long ball on for Rivers to control and confidently place past Mason.

Sub Theo Hudson nearly made it 4-0 with a powerful left-foot shot that dipped just over, but there was a late scare for Quakers when veteran defender Hunt went off with a slight hamstring problem.

Spennymoor’s home game against Hereford was postponed because of a Covid case on the Hereford bus on the way to the game. Moors only learned that the match was off when the league phoned them at 1.10pm.