Quakers still have hopes of avoiding relegation after beating promotion chasing Rotherham United for the second time in three weeks.

Goals by Tadhg Purcell and Gareth Waite gave Quakers their fourth league win of the season, and plenty of momentum going into Tuesday night's home game with fifth-bottom Lincoln City.

The gap is slowly reducing on the teams above Darlo. Second bottom Grimsby lost 1-0 at home to Notts County, and Darlo are now six points behind them. Third bottom Cheltenham drew at Bournemouth, but three other clubs in range, Torquay, Lincoln and Macclesfield all lost.

Rotherham were criticised by their manager, Ronnie Moore, and their fans for what they saw as a poor performance, but that's maybe not giving enough credit to Quakers, who battled all the way through from the first minute to the last, and never allowed Rotherham much time to settle on the ball.

The first chance of the game came Quakers' way on 17 minutes, when Gary Dempsey's corner came out to Jeff Smith, who laid the ball off for Purcell to pull across the face of goal past the far post.

Two minutes later though, the new signing was on target. The outstanding Gareth Waite headed a long ball across the Rotherham 18 yard box and the ball ran for Purcell to hit a blistering right foot shot into the bottom corner of the net past the outstretched hands of Andy Warrington, although the ball took a slight deflection off Main along the way.

The Irishman is now Darlo's outright top scorer with three goals in just four matches!

Rotherham tried to fight back and they nearly levelled when Darlo keeper Shane Redmond came out of his area, and under pressure cleared the ball straight to Danny Harrison, whose 40 yard return chip travelled wide of a gaping goal.

Darlo kept battling away in all areas of the pitch, and before half time Purcell received lengthy treatment for a head injury sustained in defending a corner inside his own penalty area.

The next goal was always going to be crucial, and it was Quakers who scored it after 53 minutes. Curtis Main got away down the right and pulled the ball back into the middle where Mor Diop had a shot blocked, but he recovered first to square the ball for Gareth Waite to turn home for his first senior goal since signing from Spennymoor a month ago.

As expected Rotherham started to throw men forward to salvage something out of the game, and they nearly pulled a goal back when their top scorer Adam Le Fondre picked up the bal l six yards out, but Simon Madden whipped the ball off his toes.

But Darlo, armed with penalty of determination and passion, kept Rotherham in check by closing men down and tackling back ferociously, and Redmond barely had anything to do in terms of direct action.

Darlo kept control going into the closing minutes, and nearly scored a third in a goalmouth scramble, while Rotherham's Drewe Broughton chipped over the bar at the other end.

Team: Redmond, Madden, White, Miller, Giddings, J Smith 9sub Gray 83), Dempsey, Waite, Purcell, Main (sub Mulligan 69), Diop (sub Deane 61). Subs not used: Liversedge, G Smith, Groves, Byrne.