Darlington 0 Kidderminster Harriers 1

It was added-time agony for Darlington with Marcus Dinanga again their nemesis.

It was November 2019 when he came off the bench and hit a hat-trick to secure a 3-2 win for Telford, the winner coming in added time.

He was at it again today, this time in the colours of Kidderminster Harriers to snatch what would have been a hard-earned point for mid-table Quakers against a side firmly in the play-off picture.

There was little between the teams in a competitive encounter at Blackwell Meadows, though Quakers failed to give Harriers goalkeeper Luke Simpson a save to make.

Though not under a lot of pressure, Darlington No. 1 Tommy Taylor was the busier goalkeeper and he had a save to make after 20 minutes, stopping an effort from 20 yards by Sam Austin, the Kidderminster captain who scored in their FA Cup shock last week against Reading.

He also did well to save from Ashley Hemmings just before the break, though only Hemmings will know how he later missed an open goal with a header.

Similarly, only referee Richard Aspinall can explain why he ruled out what appeared to be a legitimate Kidderminster goal seconds after the restart.

Austin shrugged off the recalled Alex Storey, in for Jake Lawlor, and Harriers’ captain then shot past Taylor to seemingly open the scoring, but bafflingly Aspinall instead awarded a foul against the Darlington defender.

Darlington, of course, were not complaining and it made for a pleasant change to benefit from a questionable decision given some of the errors made by referees this season.

Quakers' best chance of the entire game came on the hour mark, but Jack Lambert wasted it. He blasted wide after Jake Cassidy had flicked on Jarrett Rivers’ right-wing cross, and that was as good as it got for Alun Armstrong’s side.

As the contest reached the closing stages both sides made substitutions, but Darlington’s made little impact whereas Harriers’ made all the difference.

They won the game in the second minute of added time when subs Ethan Freemantle and Jaiden White combined to set up Austin, and his cross teed up Dinanga to head home just three minutes after coming off the bench.

Darlington (4-3-3): Taylor; Griffiths, Ellis, Storey, Smith; Hatfield, Rose, Purver (Wheatley 63); Rivers (Dos Santos 85), Cassidy (O’Neill 73), Lambert. Subs not used: Hedley, Beeden

Kidderminster Harriers (4-3-3): Simpson; Penny, Lowe, Bajrami, Richards; Austin, Carrington, Martin; Hemmings (White 72), Morgan-Smith (Freemantle 78), Sterling (Dinanga 89). Subs not used: Foulkes, Redmond