Darlington's problems deepen after heavy away defeat at Chorley

Quakers never recovered from Chorley’s eighth minute opener, even though they used all five of their subs by the hour mark. They had a brief revival from 4-0 down, but Chorley’s fifth goal killed the game.

Darlington started with promise and caused problems down the left hand side, and on the second occasion Ethan Fitzhugh pulled the ball back for Mark Beck, on his return from injury, to have a left foot shot deflected wide, then he glanced the corner that followed over the bar.

But Chorley took the lead with their first real attack on eight minutes, when the ball was worked in from the right for Jack Hazlehurst to chip the ball into the box for Elliot Taylor to glance into the bottom left corner.

Chorley had chances to score a second as they took control of the game.

New signing Atkinson to did well to head away a teasing cross at the far post, then Adam Blakeman fired straight at Bobby Jones from 25 yards. Then Jones was in action again to push away a low shot from Taylor after he’d broken clear.

Adam Blakeman had a 25-yard free kick deflected over the bar, and then Harvey Smith saw a header deflected over.

The home side’s pressure paid off on 40 minutes when Max Wilson crossed deep from the right for Warren Clarke to rise high and head past Jones.

Quakers then conceded a penalty for a foul by Thompson, but Jones did well to save Hazlehurst’s spot kick by diving to his right, and then he recovered quickly and blocked the follow up.

But there was no let up from the relentless home side and they scored a third when Hazlehurst controlled a ball in from the right and fired past Jones.

Quakers made three subs at half time, with Ben Hedley, Brad Walker and Dylan Stephenson coming on for Thompson, Pye and Henson, and that injected a new lease of life briefly, but Chorley scored their fourth on 55 minutes, when a free kick was played down the right into the path of Hazlehurst, who fired across Jones into the net.

Quakers used all their subs on the hour mark, when Aidan Rutledge and Ellis Stanton came on for Ethan Fitzhugh and Sam Hetherington.

Chorley continued to dominate, and Wilson hit the outside of the post with a right foot shot.

But Quakers hit back on 74 minutes when Mark Beck headed in from a left wing corner.

They nearly got another when Stephenson crossed low from the right for Beck to have an effort deflected over, but they managed another break through when Rutledge nodded down a right wing cross for Stanton to tap in with ten minutes left.

But the revival was killed off when Jack Sampson pounced on a poor backpass and fired past Jones.

To make matters worse for Quakers, Rutledge was shown his second yellow late in the game.