AS DARLINGTON took to the field for the second half on Saturday, some joker thought it would be funny to play the Benny Hill theme music over the Sincil Bank PA system.

Thanks to clinical finishing that earned a comprehensive fifth consecutive win, Quakers had the last laugh.

Lincoln will be sick of the sight of Darlington as Quakers are now unbeaten in their last eight visits to face the Imps, while Saturday's result means that Dave Penney's side have completed a league double over Lincoln this season.

In the two matches Darlington have scored six and conceded none, and clean sheets have become Quakers' common theme as that is now 14 in 19 league games - more than any other team in the Premier League or Football League.

Fourteen is also as many clean sheets as they managed throughout last season.

In the last ten games Darlington's resilient defence has been breached only five times, and all those goals came in the freak 5-1 defeat at Hereford at the beginning of last month.

Since then Penney's side have won all five league games and the last two have both been 4-0 away wins, the previous one at Grimsby almost three weeks ago.

Saturday's performance was not as impressive as the one at Grimsby - probably the best of the season so far - but the scoreline was due to Quakers' ruthlessness in front of goal, whereas Lincoln wasted their chances.

The third goal, scored by Micky Cummins, was particularly impressive.

He exchanged a series of quick passes on the left-wing with Gregg Blundell before the Scouse striker pulled the ball back from the byline into Cummins' path and he coolly side-footed home from six yards.

It was a swift move typical of Darlington's passing style and composed finishing, which has taken them to third in the table with just two defeats so far.

Cummins' strike came in first half injury time to make it 3-0, Richie Foran and Clark Keltie having already scored despite a bright start by the hosts.

Daniel Hone forced keeper David Stockdale into a flying save from Lincoln's fourth corner in the first 11 minutes.

But then Foran put Quakers ahead by calmly shooting across goal following Lee Ridley's through-ball.

Almost immediately Lincoln had their chance to equalise but wasted it as Lewis Dodds headed over from close-range.

Just after the half hour it was 2-0 with Keltie scoring his second penalty of the season. His corner was headed back across goal by a Lincoln defender and Danny N'Guessan handled, allowing Keltie to drill low and hard past the keeper.

It was erhaps a tad harsh on Lincoln, but despite there still being an hour to play, with the best defence in the division defending a 2-0 lead the points were in the bag.

"They were the home team so they gave it a really good go for 20 minutes but our goals killed them off, and our goals were quality," said Penney.

"Lincoln had their chances in the first half but we stayed resolute and that's another clean sheet.

"Our finishing was excellent, that's another four goals away from home and you'd be happy with that any day of the week.

"The fourth one was a great goal. Julian stood the ball up and it was a great header from Micky, but probably the best goal of the game was the third just before half-time.

"We worked the channel, Gregg pulled it back for Micky and side-footed it into the net.

"We always knew there were goals in Micky and now he's scoring them."

Just before the restart came the Benny Hill music, a bit rich and wholly inappropriate given that Lincoln were losing 3-0. Any smiles were soon wiped off Lincoln supporters' faces as just six minutes later it became 4-0.

Cummins was again involved in a free-flowing build-up. His forward pass played in Blundell to lay the ball off to Julian Joachim, whose pin-point cross found Cummins and he sent a header looping over the keeper.

Lincoln made a triple substitution but it had little effect because Darlington remained strong at the back and were able to treat the remainder of the game as a training session, allowing subs Neil Austin, Ian Miller and Pawel Abbott a run out.

Penney said: "At 3-0 it was just a case of being professional, making sure we stayed focused.

The next goal was important, we got it and that meant the game was killed off and we could make some substitutions and rest some players.

"Gregg and Tommy Wright have both been excellent but we brought them off to give them a rest.

"It gave us the chance to give some time on the pitch to Austin and Abbott."

Lincoln had strong appeals for a penalty turned down, despite Alan White appearing to have handled, and Abbott wasted a good chance when one-on-one with the keeper. But the outcome was never in doubt and it sets up Quakers nicely for a crunch week.

They now face back-to-back home games against two of their promotion rivals, Rotherham United on Boxing Day and MK Dons on Saturday.

Win both and Darlington could be top of the table going into 2008.