Darlington's reserve secured three points at Grimsby Town yesterday afternoon as they capitalised on a late slip up by the home side. The Mariners got themselves in a real mess at the back and allowed Shaun Reay to nip in and net the only goal of the game.

Quakers handed starts to Andy Oakes, Ian Miller, Kevin Burgess, Neil Wainwright and Kevin McBride. The home side, fielding a strong team, started the game brightly and both Nathan Jarman and Nick Hegarty tested Oakes from distance inside the opening ten minutes.

Despite the opening period of the game both keepers had little to do. As the half hour approached Liam O'Mahoney got free down the left hand side with a wonderful piece of skill but keeper Phil Barnes was able to see the resulting cross out to safety. Grimsby won a free-kick towards the end of the first half but the game remained deadlocked at the interval.

Again the home side started brightly as the second period got underway but Quakers soon got back into proceedings with Reay in particular looking a threat. First the young striker rescued a loose ball on sixty-five minutes but fired a speculative effort across the face of goal. A few minutes later he worked another opportunity but acrobatically fired wide before stinging the palms of Barnes with a twenty-yard effort on seventy-four minutes.

Grimsby did threaten but with just over ten minutes left they got themselves in a mess at the back and it allowed Darlington to win the game. Jamie Clarke sold Barnes short with a backpass and Reay was quickest to react to swoop and knock the ball past the goalkeeper and into the empty net. The striker then had a great chance to seal the win on eighty-six minutes but was denied by a fine one-handed save by Barnes when clean through.

Darlington: Oakes, Wiseman, Miller, Burgess, Bobby, Wainwright, McBride, Hardman, Barrau, O'Mahoney, Reay.

Grimsby reserves 0-1 Darlington reserves