Darlington completed their home fixtures with a drab 1-1 draw against Farsley Celtic at Blackwell Meadows.

Quakers nearly won the game in a late flourish, but again they lacked that killer instinct in front of goal and have now not won in six matches, dropping to 13th in the table.

Manager Alun Armstrong said: “I thought we should have won the game before half time. We started brightly, we were full of good initiative, and we got behind them.

“We scored a good goal after a great little bit of play, but after we scored, instead of playing behind Farsley, we started playing in front of them. It’s annoying, because we got success from running in behind and stretching them, but instead we invited the press.

“Tommy Taylor then conceded a goal from a set-play. It’s so frustrating, when we should have won the game at a canter."

Quakers started the game with striker Jake Cassidy alongside David Wheater in the centre of defence because of injuries to Alex Storey, Danny Ellis and Jake Lawlor.

And the new pairing weren’t seriously troubled apart from a header by Adam Clayton from a corner that went wide.

Armstrong said: “I thought Jake Cassidy never put a foot wrong in the centre of defence considering that he only knew that he would be playing there at lunchtime.”

Darlington had more of the ball and took the lead on 19 minutes when the nippy Junior Mondal picked up a pass from Jack Lambert, skipped past two challenges and struck a low shot that the goalkeeper parried, and Tyrone O’Neill was on hand to tap the ball in for his fourth goal of the season.

Mondal nearly added a second with another good run that ended with a shot that went across the face of goal.

But Farsley, battling relegation, hit back in first-half stoppage time when Will Hayhurst swung a corner over from the left for the unmarked Kennedy Digie to plant a header past keeper Tommy Taylor.

Farsley almost scored at the start of the second half when Jacob Gratton fired across the face of goal.

Quakers bounced back and nearly scored on the hour when Lambert cut in from the left, beat a defender, but Robson touched his shot over the bar.

With news of bottom-of-the-table Guiseley’s match-winning goal against Spennymoor Town coming through, Farsley nearly scored when Frank Mulhern hit the crossbar with a left wing cross, and Taylor pulled off a point blank save from Jerome Greaves.

After Ben Hedley went close with a cross-cum-shot, Quakers had a loud penalty appeal turned down when Cameron Thompson appeared to be tripped, but the referee waved their appeals away.

Darlington raised themselves for one last push. Sub Kevin Dos Santos had a shot blocked, the hard-working Lambert was denied again.

Quakers conclude their season at Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday.