Kidderminster 1 Darlington 2 - Report

The Quakers sealed an impressive victory thanks to a brace from Mark Beck.

Harriers’ consolation effort came from substitute Jack Bearne, his first goal from the club following a loan move from Liverpool.

Boss Russ Penn’s side had been hoping to return to winnings ways after losing 4-2 at Scarborough Athletic earlier in the week – a defeat which followed narrow victories over Banbury United at Chorley.

The setback against the high-flying Quakers, however, pushed them down to tenth spot in the table.

Kidderminster made one change from the side which lost at Scarborough the previous Tuesday with Nathan Lowe coming in to face his former club in place of injured Shane Byrne.

They made an encouraging start when Amari Morgan-Smith headed on to Ashley Hemmings who pulled the trigger on a fierce 20 yard drive which was well pushed around the post for an unproductive corner by goalkeeper Tommy Taylor.

A couple of minutes later Hemmings was in the right place at the right time to try another effort on goal, but this time he curled his shot high and wide.

Harriers continued to push forward and Ethan Freemantle saw his powerful effort well pushed away by Taylor with Hemmings failing to hit the target with his follow-up shot.

Second placed Darlington responded with a rapid raid on 13 minutes which led to Jack Lambert, a hat-trick hero in his side’s previous outing when they won 4-1 at Telford, having a long range piledriver smash against the bar.

Soon afterwards the alert Taylor was called into action again when he pulled off another fine save, this time to beat away a thunderous drive from Hemmings.

Darlington then stormed away only for Jacob Hazel to see his shot on the run dip over the bar.

The striker had another shot at goal a minute later, but his effort was safely held by goalkeeper Tom Palmer.

The visitors, however, were bang on target three minutes before half time when Hazel created the opportunity for Beck to fire firmly low down past diving Palmer.

Hazel was in the thick of the action again in the opening minutes of the second period and had a low shot stopped at the near post by Palmer, who then denied the same player with a smart save with his knees.

Harriers soon set about creating another promising attack which resulted in Morgan-Smith having a powerful drive expertly saved by Taylor.

Deadly Darlington, however, stretched their lead to 2-0 in the 68th minute when a good run and low cross by Kaine Felix was rammed into the net from close range by Beck.

Harriers pulled a goal back in the 81st minute when Bearne stretched to turn in a perfect cross from Hemmings to set up an exciting finish to an entertaining encounter.

Kidderminster: Palmer; Starbuck, Pearce, Leak, Richards; Hemmings, Lowe, Martin (Burgess, 85), Rogers (Brown, 67); Freemantle (Bearne, 58), Morgan-Smith. Subs not used: Ceesay, Margetson,

Darlington: Taylor; Hedley, Dodds, Sukar, Leesley; Felix (Lawlor, 90), Moke, Purver, Lambert (Rivers, 92); Hazel (Liddle 87), Beck. Subs not used: Rose, Barbosa.

Referee: Neil Pratt.

Attendance: 2,188 (121 away fans)