Altrincham goalkeeper Stuart Coburn was a guest at Darlington striker Chris Senior's wedding last summer but it would be a surprise if he's invited to any anniversary celebration.
The Robins shotstopper upset his former Moss Lane teammate at the weekend when he left a belated and unwanted wedding present. But while most people leave some bedding or a vase as a gift, Coburn left The Northern Echo Arena with a clean sheet after a once in a lifetime performance that surely shatters any dreams Quakers had of making the play-offs.
The 34-year-old was inspired on Saturday, producing several superb stops and saves from Liam Hatch, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, Dan Burn, Aaron Brown and, of course, Senior.
"Being an ex Altrincham player, I know Stuart Coburn really well and, I must admit, he is a really good goalkeeper for this standard," acknowledged Senior. "But, he's made one ridiculous save off myself, and I said to him "Cobs, how did you save that?" to which he replied "Chris, I've been making those saves for years". It was a bit tongue in cheek but he has. He is a good goalkeeper so credit where credit's due."
Darlington boss Mark Cooper, on the other hand, was far from impressed with the opposition's goalkeeper and the straight-talking manager accused his players of making Coburn look good.
"When you have that bit pressure you need to have somebody who can create something or be able to finish a chance off," said the agitated Quakers manager. "You can't keep saying the keeper has made a great save. You have to take him out of it, bend it in the bottom corner. We're hitting shots at him and they're making him look like he's making great saves, but bend it around him."
But while Cooper was furious with his offensive players for failing to finish off their struggling counterparts, he was equally annoyed with his defenders for being unable to protect what they already had.
Damian Reeves' 87th minute header put an end to that and ruined any ambitions Darlington may have had of extending a 12 match unbeaten sequence. The defeat also ensured a worrying pattern continued for the hosts.
Eleven points now have been dropped this season to conceding late goals from the 85th minute onwards, much to the manager's annoyance.
"When you have that much possession and when you're that dominant you have to score goals," said a frustrated Cooper. "When you try and gamble at the end to try and get a winner you have to make sure your most experienced players at the back are well organised and keep the back door locked. Three of our back four who are experienced did not do that.
"I thought we played well, especially in the first half. We tried to play and had loads of possession but it is about what happens in both boxes, and it is about having that bit of quality to finish things off.
"When we had the pressure we didn't score goals so people have to be held accountable for that. Too much ball watching from the experienced defenders and no organisation."
Darlington now have ten league fixtures left to salvage a late play off surge. Seven of those games are away from home, while the subsequent three are against teams above them in the table. Considering Quakers' indifferent form on the road this term it would be an enormous surprise if they managed to squeeze into the play offs .
Cooper made it known Saturday's game was a "must win" contest if the club were to realise their Football League Two ambitions. And after the defeat to Ken McKenna's strugglers he conceded it would be virtually impossible.
"It is a big ask," he admitted. "I think if we're truthful, it was always going to be a massive shock for us. But we thought, coming off the back of the trophy, we might win a few games. But we've drawn against Gateshead after being 2-0 up, we've drawn against Kettering here after being 1-0 up and we have lost today. That is a lot of points we've thrown away. It is too many to mention and we probably don't deserve to be up there at the moment."
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