DARLINGTON were left ruing missed opportunities after they won against Peterborough Sports at Kettering in their final game of the season.

Even though it was Quakers’ first win in ten matches, they finished tenth in the table, just an agonising point off the play-offs behind Spennymoor and Scarborough, with Gloucester gaining the last play-off place.

They have had plenty of chances to make sure of a play-off spot in recent weeks and haven’t taken them, while there have also been a couple of questionable refereeing decisions affecting results along the way, such as the handball against Bradford Park Avenue. The losses of Mark Beck and Dan Dodds have been turning points, followed by the injury to Jack Lambert.

“I’m gutted, because we should have been in the play-offs, and that’s down to me unfortunately,” said manager Alun Armstrong.

“We’ll see what comes of that, we’ve got a meeting scheduled and there’s lots to discuss, how it unravelled from top to bottom.

“I’m gutted, it’s just one of those things unfortunately. We can look at games and discuss things, but I would expect the players to win more than two games out of 17. Let’s be honest, we expected a lot more than that.

“I’m massively disappointed not to get into the play-offs, but you can see how competitive the league is.

“It wasn’t a proper football match (against Peterborough) because of the pitch, you could always tell that one goal was going to win it, there was a bit of magic from Haze to finish it. I think we deserved to win overall.

“Getting into the play-offs on Saturday was always a long shot, and I told the lads to go and win the game, At least we’ve given the fans something to cling on to.

“It hasn’t been good enough. We haven’t turned draws into wins, and we’ve thrown away winning positions.”

When Quakers last played at Kettering in March, they were far from happy with the uneven surface, and on this occasion it was even worse, being uneven and rutted in places. On another day, whether the game started would have been under scrutiny.

Quakers nearly scored on 12 minutes when Lambert floated the ball over to the far post where Jacob Hazel volleyed down and over the bar.

The home side, who are hoping that their ground passed a league inspection yesterday - which is another issue altogether - nearly scored themselves with a low shot by Mark Jones that beat keeper Tommy Taylor, but Kallum Griffiths cleared off the line.

Quakers had another chance on 16 minutes when Kaine Felix crossed to the edge of the box from the right for Ben Liddle to volley wide, then Felix cut in from the right and forced Sports keeper Peter Crook into a save low down.

With the ball bobbling all over the place, Taylor produced a good reaction save to push a powerful shot by Dan Jarvis over the bar.

Lambert was unlucky to see a 30 yarder dip just wide of the right hand post, then Felix had another effort blocked.

But just before half time, Sports went close twice, first with an angled shot by Jordon Crawford, and then a glancing header by Josh McCammon.

There weren’t any chances in the second half until midway through, when Hazel produced a sublime piece of skill to control the ball on his chest, swivel, and beat Crook with a dipping left foot shot for his 21st goal of the season.

There were some hurried checks on what was going on elsewhere, but with Kidderminster in control against Kettering, Spennymoor likewise against Farsley and Gloucester battling against Chorley, then the mathematical miracle didn’t come about.