By Martin Walker
Craig Liddle admits the uphill task of keeping Darlington in the Blue Square Bet Premier League this season is the biggest challenge he’s ever had to face.
The Quakers slumped to their 13th league defeat of the season at promotion-chasing Southport last night.
Karl Ledsham’s eighth-minute strike and Shaun Whalley’s 49th-minute goal gave the Merseysiders the points, with Darlo sliding to 19th in the table.
They’re now level with fourth-bottom Kettering Town, while Liddle takes his beleaguered troops to third-bottom Alfreton Town this Saturday in what he’s described as one of the biggest games in the club’s history.
“It’s probably the biggest challenge I’ve ever had to face in my career,” Liddle said today.
“Saturday’s game is huge now, one of the biggest in the club’s history. They could leapfrog us in the table and we’d be in the relegation zone.
“I think there’s a mini league down there now, in the bottom eight, and we just have to make sure we finish near the top of that little league.
“It’s going to be hard, there’s no getting away from it. The lads have been magnificent, their attitude is absolutely superb and we mustn’t forget Southport are fourth in the table chasing promotion, against our situation and the fact we’re having to put such a young side out every game, which is taking its toll.”
Liddle has bemoaned the Conference’s transfer stance, which only enables them to bring in Under-19 players on loan from other clubs.
“I had a player lined up to come in on Monday and the Conference have blocked it,” said Liddle.
“I understand there are rules, but they go against the whole national Academy philosophy of protecting our young players.
“I’m putting our youth team players out and they’re doing a sterling job, but sometimes it is men against boys and so the results aren’t going to come.
“Then we’re told we can only bring in young players on loan from other clubs, so I’m not sure how that’s supposed to be protecting young players.”
It was another hard luck story for Darlo at Southport, with Liddle adding: “We’ve enjoyed the majority of possession and played some good stuff in the first half, but we’ve missed a chance and they’ve gone up the other end and scored.
“If we’d scored, it puts a completely different outlook on the game early on.
“But we weren’t at it in the second half. We got caught up in their long-ball game and didn’t stick to our own game which was disappointing.”
Darlington: Pickford, Bagnall, Brown, Harrison, K Taylor, McReady, Keltie, Bridge-Wilkinson, Rundle (Lambert, 83), Hopson (Ramshaw, 58), Bowman (Ferguson, 87). Unused: P Gray, Nixon.
Attendance: 847.