Darlington's youngsters gave a valiant display before they fell to the league champions at the Northern Echo Arena tonight.

Manager Simon Davey's team selection was badly hit by injuries to Tadhg Purcell, Mor Diop and Gary Smith, so that meant teenagers Michael Smith and John McReady were handed their full debuts, as the manager was forced to revert to a 4-5-1 formation out of pure necessity.

And he revealed after the game that none of the injured players look as if they're going to recover in time for Saturday's away game at Macclesfield, Quakers' last trip of the season.

But every Darlo fan was quick to applaud the efforts of the young team, and even though the scoreline was worse than Saturday's 2-0 home defeat by Grimsby, the spirited performance was much more encouraging.

In fact, Darlo looked sharper than their more illustrious and expensive opponents, and nearly took the lead after 12 minutes when Gary Dempsey let fly from 30 yards, and his shot was heading into the top corner until Kasper Schmeichel, who had a loan spell at Darlo five years ago, somehow managed to palm the ball away for a corner.

Graeme Lee hit the base of the Darlo post from a right wing cross, but that was the only real scare Darlo had until County got their noses in front on 33 minutes, when Delroy Facey got to the bye line on the left and pulled the ball back for Johnnie Jackson to turn home.

Craig Westcarr nearly broke through for the second, but his lob over Liversedge travelled just over the top.

Quakers continued to cope with the County attacks, courtesy of some spirited and tenacious defending, and in the first 20 minutes of the second half, only Westcarr troubled Liversedge.

But the introduction of County sub Jamie Clapham changed the face of the game as some Darlo legs tired in the last 20 minutes.

A County corner fell to Westcarr on the edge of the Darlo box, and he flicked the ball over his head towards goal, and Mike Edwards, eight yards out, got the second with a delightful overhead kick into the bottom corner.

The third goal was a giveaway by Darlo defender Mark Bower, who allowed Westcarr to nip in between him and Liversedge as the ball ran back towards the keeper, and the striker slid the ball in.

On 78 minutes it was 4-0, when County sub Luke Rodgers chested down a through ball, turned quickly and hit a powerful right foot shot over Liversedge into the roof of the net.

And the fifth came on 81 minutes when Westcarr fired across the face of goal, and Rodgers flicked the ball past Liversedge.

In terms of the scoreline, it was Darlo's worst home defeat, but strangely enough there was a glowing sense of pride amongst the Darlo fans with the performance of the youngsters.