Appointed caretaker manager when Mark Cooper was sacked on October 24, he has since underpinned a club thrown into chaos by chairman Raj Singh's threat to walkout and a determination to slash the budget.

Yet, Liddle has dealt with the carnage with typical resolve. Head down, focused on the task at hand with no room for complaint.

Somehow he has ensured that the squad maintains some level of focus, despite rumours over certain players' future, while he is simultaneously kept a close eye on the burgeoning youth team.

On Friday, he was on the sidelines as they defeated Rotherham to go joint top of the table and that was followed 24 hours later by Darlington's best performance of the season at Ebbsfleet United.

Playing against a team who, though also in the bottom half of the table, were undefeated in six matches, the 3-1 win was as one-sided a display as a team can hope to produce on their travels.

The contrast to the previous league away game - at Braintree, two days before Cooper was axed - was vast. Only four survivors from the team that day made Saturday's XI.

Having also beaten AFC Telford a fortnight ago, the results are providing a fillip for concerned supporters, and striker Liam Hatch says there is one man to thank.

"The lads have been fantastic in training and Lidds deserves the credit," said Hatch, who scored twice on Saturday.

"He's taking the first team, he's taking the youth team and he's taking the centre of excellence.

"We're trying to do our best for him. He's taking on a lot of work, but that's the situation we are in and we're all doing our best for him.

"There's some older pros in there, as well as some younger lads, so we know what it's all about - a couple of us have probably been in this sort of situation before. As long as we keep winning, hopefully that will help."

Liddle, who coaches the first team during the morning and the youth team in the afternoon, was similarly praiseworthy for the team.

"You've got to give the lads an enormous amount of credit," he said.

"Every day in training I've pushed them hard and not one of them has complained, they've got on with it and worked their socks off.

"I told them before the game that they are fitter now than they were two weeks ago and that showed. Everybody stuck together and it was a real team performance."

From the beginning, Darlington were patient in their build-up, coveting possession and playing simple football that Liam Daish's Ebbsfleet side struggled to cope with.

From an early stage Quakers were more productive, deservedly taking the lead on 20 minutes. Marc Bridge-Wilkinson's corner to the near post was missed by keeper Preston Edwards, allowing Hatch to blast home against one of his former clubs.

Debutant Dale Hopson was involved, his jump impeding Edwards, and the 19-year-old went on to enjoy and outstanding game.

Playing just off Hatch, he was a menace to the home side who could not get to grips his defence-splitting distribution.

One such example was a clever flick that played in Adam Rundle, though the shot was saved. After the break he was responsible for a series of perfectly-weighted passes to set up team-mates.

Only their wastefulness and saves from Edwards denied Hopson an assist as Darlington created chance after chance and, typically, they paid for their profligacy as midway through the half Ebbsfleet equalised.

On the right, Michael West was allowed to cross from deep and leading scorer Calum Willock beat Sam Russell to the ball and head his 12th of the season.

Darlington swiftly regained their composure, however, and within five minutes justice was done with Hatch, who had not scored since the first day of the season, grabbing his second of the day.

Hopson was again involved, this time spotting a run from Bridge-Wilkinson whose flighted delivery to the far post allowed Hatch to stab home.

There was a late burst from Ebbsfleet and Russell had to make a couple of saves, Jamie Chandler threw himself in the way of a Jamie Darvill shot and Ian Miller made a well-timed tackle in the penalty area on Willock.

But victory was aptly sealed by man of the match Hopson. He latched onto James Gray's ball over top, waltzed around Edwards and coolly rolled the ball over the line to cap a stunning debut.

The win means Darlington, for all their problems, now have a point more than they had at this stage last year, but Liddle is unsure what the future holds.

"It's too early to say we're over the off-the-field issues, we'll go back to work on Monday and see where we are at," he said.

"I honestly don't know if there'll be any more outgoings. The chairman wanted the wage bill down to a sustainable level, whether it is yet, I'm not sure.

"I enjoyed watching today. All the hours put in this week were made worthwhile."