IT IS difficult to find one word to sum up Notts County's performance, if even that is the right word, at Darlington last night; well, one that can be printed anyway.

Disappointing? Yes, but that does not go far enough. Below-par? Again, not far enough. How about woeful? Yes, they were woeful. That will do.

If they were wonderful in their victory against Bradford City at Meadow Lane on Saturday, they were woeful at Darlington.

If they were a Rolls-Royce against Bradford, they were Del Boy's rusty three-wheel van last night.

The Magpies were entirely unrecognisable from the side that put Bradford to the sword so stylishly only three days earlier.

And they only made one personnel and one positional change last night from that 3-1 win, with veteran defender Michael Johnson rested, Adam Tann switched into the centre of defence alongside captain Mike Edwards and Phil Picken recalled at right-back after illness.

Now, there is no doubt Johnson is a hugely influential figure in the Notts side; he is almost irreplaceable, in fact. No one else possesses his vocal leadership. How they could have done with that last night; somebody to rally the players, because, in truth, they never got into their stride at all.

They weren't even stung into a stirring response after falling behind so early in the game.

Yes, they improved in the second half. But that wasn't difficult after the first half; 45 minutes in which they failed to get any kind of foothold in the game and, more worryingly, register a single effort on goal.

Except for a couple of chances for on-loan striker Jonathan Forte, they never once looked like scoring, like getting back on level terms.

In fairness, the Magpies were not able to play their usual passing, probing, style of football because heavy rain before kick-off and during the first half made the pitch terribly muddy and waterlogged in places.

And the strong, swirling, wind inside the stadium made a more direct approach equally difficult.

But, in conditions like that, players have to roll up their sleeves and battle, scrap and fight for every ball.

The Darlington players did that, every single one of them; the Notts players didn't, which is why they were second best.

The Quakers are a club in crisis. They are in administration, the players haven't been paid, their play-off hopes have all but been ended with the automatic ten points deduction and they were missing several key first-team players through injuries and suspensions.

They had to dip into the club's youth ranks to name a 16-man squad last night, with a string of teenagers involved. But they came out fighting, with a siege mentality. It was admirable stuff.

They took the lead, of course very early in the game – on five minutes, through Robin Hulbert.

He seized his opportunity from eight yards with aplomb but it was poor defending on Notts' part, with Tann and Edwards both too deep to cut Danny Carlton's right-wing cross out as it flashed across the penalty area.

John Thompson too, was caught a little flat-footed as Hulbert burst onto the loose ball and fired it past the exposed Kevin Pilkington.

It was the best possible start for the home side; the worst for the Magpies, and they never recovered from it.

In truth, they could have been even further behind at half-time.

After Hulbert miscued wide of Pilkington's left-hand upright, Carlton forced him into a full-stretch parry low down to his right with a powerful 30-yard strike just after the half-hour mark.

David Poole too, stung his palms with a venomous free-kick from just outside the penalty area in the closing minutes of the first half.

Notts managed nothing memorable in reply at all.

In fact, it took until the 51st minute for Forte to register their first effort on goal – and even that was a rather tame strike that Quakers' keeper Andy Oakes held easily.

The on-loan striker, who scored twice against Bradford City, went closer to levelling the game just before the hour mark but just lifted his shot over the crossbar. His control with his back to goal was good and so too was his instinct, to shoot on the turn. But all of that was not matched with a formidable finish.

Forte certainly enjoyed greater influence in the second half when he was switched into a central attacking role, having started on the right in place of hamstrung Matt Hamshaw.

But his narrow miss was the closest the Magpies came to rescuing a point in the end.

And so Notts are still to win on the road in six games this year. Okay, so they should have won at Brentford on January 17, but conceded an injury-time equaliser, and they should have won at Aldershot three days later.

But they deserved to lose at Rochdale, Bury and now Darlington.

While they are starting to look a formidable outfit at Meadow Lane, with four wins out of their last five games on home soil, they still need to improve their away form – and quickly too, with a trip to Shrewsbury on Saturday; a club that boasts comfortably the best home record in the basement division.