Alfreton 0 Darlington 3

Quakers went up to fourth in the table with one of their best away performances of the season at the Impact Arena.

They hit the post three times in the first half and led 1-0 at half time, but two goals by Josh Gillies and Terry Galbraith in the space of a few minutes allowed them to cruise through the rest of the game.

Quakers hit the post three times as they dominated the first half, but they only had Nathan Cartman's goal to show for it.

Quakers nearly took the lead on 3 minutes. David Ferguson crossed from the left for Mark Beck to head towards goal from six yards, the ball struck the post and rebounded off keeper Jordan Spiess for a corner.

Then on 6 minutes Stephen Thompson won the ball on the right, cut inside and hit a right foot shot that brought a flying save from Spiess.

And a minute later the ball came out to Chris Hunter on the edge of the box, he drove the ball through ha crowd of players and the ball rebounded off the same post, and nobody could force the ball in.

Another chance came on 17 minutes, when Ferguson’s cross was half cleared to Beck, who laid the ball off for Josh Gillies to try a first time shot that went straight to Spiess.

Alfreton had a goal ruled out on 24 minutes, Liam Hearn fired low into the box where Craig Westcarr slid the ball home, but it was ruled out for offside.

Quakers missed another chance on 25 minutes. A cross to the far post was headed back by Beck to Gilles six yards out, and he headed into Spiess’ hands.

They finally took a deserved lead on 33 minutes, when Nathan Cartman latched on to a long ball forward from the back, and he coolly went on to slot the ball past the keeper for his seventh goal of the season.

Quakers hit the post again just before half time. Thompson made a good run to the right side of the penalty box, drove the ball into the six yard area where Cartman, with his back to goal, controlled the ball, backheeled it towards goal, but the ball struck the post and nobody could pounce on the loose ball again!

Half time

Alfreton 0 Darlington 1

The attendance is 867, of which 339 are Darlington fans. Fantastic turnout.

Alfreton were better in the second half, and on 48 minutes Quakers couldn’t quite get the ball away on the edge of their own area, and Westcarr fired just over the top.

Quakers hit back, and Gillies got to the left bye line and pulled the ball back into the six yard box where Beck couldn’t quite get a clean connection.

Quakers went 2-0 up on 57 minutes when Thompson beat a defender down the right, then cleverly lobbed the ball over to the far post whereGillies came in and fired the ball into the roof of the net.

But Quakers were nearly caught on the hour when Hearn broke away from Galbraith up the middle, but his attempted chip over Bartlett went straight into the keeper’s hands.

It was game over on 63 minutes when Beck latched on to the ball in the box and was tripped from behind, and the ref pointed to the spot from where Galbraith sent the keeper the wrong way for his 11th of the season.

Quakers cruised through the rest of the game, and manager Martin Gray made full use of his subs.

Darlington:

Bartlett, Hunter, Ferguson, Turnbull, Galbraith (sub Marrs 80), Brown, Thompson (sub Wearmouth 65), Syers (sub Scott 65), Beck, Cartman, Gillies

Subs: Wilczynski, Saunders

Alfreton

Spiess, Richards, Heaton, Allan, Wilson, Atkinson, Shelton, Marshall, McFadzean, Westcarr, Hearn

Subs: Priestley, Cox, Smith, Evans, Monkhouse