Darlington saw their unbeaten run come crashing to a halt when they suffered a shock defeat at home to lowly Chester City, with a performance manager Dave Penney branded 'shocking'.

Quakers started brightly and when they took the lead inside the opening ten minutes through Rob Purdie a home win and tenth league game without defeat was on the cards.

But Chester, sixth bottom before the game with only one win away from home this season, hit back with a goal either side of the break to inflict a first defeat in ten league games.

Penney failed to hide his disappointment and said: "It's difficult to put your finger on why it happened because we got off to a great start and should have pushed on from there.

"But a lot of our decisionmaking out there was shocking. Some of the things we were doing were not like us at all.

"We had no real leaders when things weren't going right, everything just wasn't good enough.

"It seems to me that perhaps we are not ready mentally when we play the likes of Droylsden and now Chester; a team not near the top.

"We were expected to win and perhaps we did not work as hard as we should have.

"We ended up kicking it long, nobody wanted the ball - I could go on forever because it was a shocking display."

A football betting website forecast a 6-0 home win and that appeared attainable when Purdie netted in only the seventh minute.

He calmly passed into the net from 12 yards after Franz Burgmeier had pulled the ball back from the byline.

Purdie's first goal from open play since joining the club in the summer of 2007 gave Darlington the ideal start and made the 100/1 odds of a six-goal blast appealing.

So too did the opening stages which suggested a goal rush as the lowly visitors offered little resistance.

In the opening 20 minutes Quakers frequently carved through a weak defence and from one such occasion Burgmeier saw a low shot collected by keeper John Danby.

But Darlington failed to make the most of their chances and gradually lost their momentum.

Billy Clarke, back in the team after a hamstring strain, wasted an opportunity firing tamely at Danby, after which the visitors clawed their way back into the contest.

Although Quakers had lost some of their fluidity, nobody saw Chester's equaliser coming - a stunning strike by Ryan Lowe.

From the corner of the penalty area he crashed home a volley over Simon Brown to level to the scores eight minutes before the break.

Like the subdued atmosphere, Quakers' play had gone flat though just after the break Danby denied a powerful Burgmeier effort.

But ten minutes into the second half Darlington were stunned when their opponents took the lead.

From a Lowe corner to the near post, Shaun Kelly rose highest to head into the net despite the efforts of Neil Austin on the line.

Penney responded with tactical and personnel changes.

He switched from 4-4-2 to 4- 3-3, on came Robin Hulbert and former Chester striker Gregg Blundell but it did little to spark Darlington into life.

Blundell had an overhead kick blocked that preceded Darlington penalty appeals, and then Richie Foran burst through Chester's back-line but an offside flag was raised.

A wild, long-range effort from Jason Kennedy that sailed well wide summed up Quakers' frustration.

It would have increased tenfold had sub Richie Partridge not wasted a one-on-one against Brown. Despite five minutes of injury time and Darlington finishing with four strikers on the pitch, they sank to defeat.

NORTHERN ECHO