STEVE Watson was pleased to see his Darlington side extend their run of clean sheets to five matches but now wants more cutting edge in attack.
Quakers were frustrated by Marine goalkeeper Luke Hutchinson in Saturday's stalemate.
Darlington have picked up nine points in their last five matches, but they could have had all three instead of one on Saturday if Hutchinson hadn’t pulled off four good saves in the game. But maybe a stalemate was inevitable given that the two clubs had only scored eight goals between them all season.
Nevertheless, manager Steve Watson thought that his team’s performance was better than in the goalless draw with Alfreton on Tuesday night and that there’s plenty of promise.
“It was another good clean sheet,” he said. “We had four good chances and made the keeper work, so it was a slight improvement in that respect compared to Tuesday night. Now we need to improve beyond that.
“We worked the keeper a lot more, and maybe we didn’t create as much as we would have liked. We hit the target with the chances we had, and the keeper pulled off some great saves.
“While we’re not where we want to be, it’s good to keep a clean sheet.”
There wasn’t much for the crowd of 1832 to get excited about in the first half as both clubs struggled to cope with a lively 4G surface.
Marine striker Owen Robinson headed a corner wide in the first minute, and it wasn’t until the half hour mark that Quakers began to make their mark.
Andrew Nelson couldn’t quite capitalise on a 1-2 six yards out, then Jack Maskell put in a looping header that Hutchinson touched over the bar, and from the Matty Cornish corner that followed, Maskell headed over the bar.
Maskell though was frustrated just before half time when he broke through two challenges on a breakaway but the keeper blocked his effort with his legs.
In the second half, Marine thought they’d scored only their fourth goal of the season when Adam Thomas tapped in after a free kick was blocked into his path, but the assistant’s flag went up for offside.
Hutchinson pulled off his second good save of the game when Scott Barrow’s header forward was blocked for Jarrett Rivers to hit a low first time shot that the keeper saved down to his left.
Cedric Main came on after injury and injected some life up front for the last half hour.
Quakers finished the stronger side. On 83 minutes Rivers found Kallum Griffiths on the left, and he played the ball back inside for Will Flint, who had another impressive game, to strike a low effort that again Hutchinson pushed around the post.
The keeper produced his best save right at the end though. Right back Levi Andoh ran into the box down the right and pulled the ball back for Will Hatfield, whose first time shot was heading into the roof of the net before Hutchinson just managed to fingertip the ball over the bar.
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