Darlington 3 Buxton 1

Quakers produced a high-tempo performance to go fourth in the table with a 3-1 home win over Buxton.

Quakers trailed early in the second half, but they exposed Buxton with their pace to pick up the points.

Unchanged Quakers kicked off the wind at their backs and immediately put the Buxton defence, under pressure the first chance falling to Stephen Thompson, whose low 25 yarder went a couple of yards wide of the left hand post.

Thompson had another chance when Adam Mitchell played the ball in from the right, but he shot straight at Buxton keeper Myles Wright from the edge of the box.

Quakers had a lucky escape on 15 minutes, when Alistair Taylor broke away from the stranded Darlington defence -- who had all pushed up for a setpiece --  rounded Peter Jameson, but his shot was cleared off the line by Chris Hunter.

Buxton kept possession, and in the scramble that followed Liam Hardy had a shot blocked, then Spence Harris hit another shot against the bar from just a few yards.

Quakers replied with a good run by Thompson, which ended with him shooting straight at Wright from 20 yards.

[caption id="attachment_16954" align="alignnone" width="300"] Stephen Thompson shoots towards goal[/caption]

But Quakers had another let off on 29 minutes, when a cross came in from the left and Liam Hardy scored with a firm header from six yards but the assistant’s flag went up for offside.

Quakers replied with a teasing cross by from the right by Adam Mitchell, that Lee Gaskell just failed to get a touch on.

[caption id="attachment_16955" align="alignnone" width="228"] Adam Mitchell[/caption]

Quakers nearly broke through on 35 minutes, when Nathan Cartman laid the ball off for Thompson to hit first time, and Wright nearly fumbled the ball into his own net.

Thompson was unlucky again a minute later, this time when he turned quickly and hit a low right foot shot that beat Wright, but struck the base of the left hand post.

Buxton had a loud penalty shout when Jameson came charging out of his goal to collect a through ball and flattened Hardy, but the ref waved play on. Quakers won a corner at the other end, which Burgess headed towards goal, and Wright saved.

Half time

Darlington 0 Buxton 0

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Buxton took the lead in the 49^th minute when a miscued header by Leon Scott went over the top of his own defence for Hardy to latch on to, and he neatly lobbed the advancing Jameson.

But Quakers levelled within four minutes, when Terry Galbraith’s corner forced a big goalmouth scramble, and after Kevin Burgess’ shot was cleared off the line, Lee Gaskell turned the ball home.

Quakers kept the pressure going, and took the lead on 62 minutes from another setpiece. Galbraith whipped a free kick from the right into the box, and the smallest man on the field, Nathan Cartman, nipped in to head the ball into the roof of the net for his tenth goal of the season.

[caption id="attachment_16953" align="alignnone" width="300"] Nathan Cartman heads the second[/caption]

Gary Brown put a header on to the roof of the net, then Thompson made a great run from the halfway line into the Buxton box, and his powerful low shot was blocked by Wright.

Quakers made the game safe with eight minutes left. Galbraith’s corner was partly cleared by the Buxton defence at the near post, but the ball ran back to Galbraith who from the tightest of angles, fired left footed past the helpless Wright into the top corner.

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Darlington

Jameson, Hunter, Galbraith, Turnbull, Burgess, Brown, Mitchell (sub Portas 84), Scott, Gaskell (sub Armstrong 86), Cartman (sub Dowson 80), Thompson.

Subs: Provett, Nowakowski

Buxton: Wright, Belezika (sub Hedley 82), Green, Ravenhill, J Bembo-Leta, Young, Taylor, Harris, Wiles (sub Barraclough 73), Hardy, Doran.

Subs: Grayson, Doyle, Hedley, F Bembo-Leta

Booking: Belezika

Attendance 857

Stats (thanks to Simon Hahn)

Shots on target: Darlington 8 Buxton 3

Shots off target: 4-2

Free kicks 13-10

Corners 12-0

Yellows 0-1

Red 0-0