Southend United's torrid season slumped to even greater depths on Saturday following a lacklustre performance which handed Darlington an embarrassingly easy victory.

The Quakers had to wait until three minutes into second-half injury time to seal their win against the impotent Shrimpers, but in all honesty they should have had this Third Division match tied up long before substitute Mario Dorner's last-gasp winner.

Any more displays like this and Blues' fans won't have to just endure sleepless nights about the proposed £4 million sale of their team's Roots Hall home, but the very real prospect of playing non-league soccer next season.

Bottom club Scarborough, who picked up another priceless triumph at fellow strugglers Torquay United at the weekend, have a game in hand on Southend and can cut the gap between themselves and Blues to just six points.

A few weeks ago a first taste of Conference football for Southend was unthinkable, but after their latest gutless display away from Roots Hall, their seventh without a win, a league exit is becoming a realistic possibility.

The difference between Southend and the Scarboroughs of this world is that the Yorkshiremen have got a bit of spunk about them and if it comes to the crunch will pick up the survival points they need.

Whereas Blues, who have to face five of the league's top six teams in their last ten matches, do not appear to have the stomach for the fight and may find themselves earning their salaries against the likes of Telford, Barrow and Hayes next term.

At Darlington, Southend were horrendous and only the defence could take any credit as they continually cleared their lines without any help or cover from Blues' non-existent presence in midfield.

In fact skipper Simon Coleman and co must have felt they had turned up for a five-a-side game at times because it seemed that they, apart from Barry Conlon's lone battling figure up front, were the only men in blue on Darlington's awful pitch.

Central midfielders Kevin Maher and Lars Unger may as well have stayed on the team coach following a 90-minute disappearing act.

The duo simply lacked appetite and were brushed aside by their Darlington counterparts.

Southend's fans deserve much more than this and the 200 supporters who made the long trip north, in the desperate hope of witnessing a rare away success, must have wished they had saved their cash for the umpteenth time this term.

From the moment the referee blew his whistle and started the proceedings Darlington set about taking Blues apart.

After three minutes ex-Sunderland hitman Marco Gabbiadini, the Third Division's top scorer, found his unmarked strike partner Peter Duffield with a left-wing cross which he headed weakly at Shrimpers' keeper Mel Capleton.

Conlon tried to inspire Blues and forced a low save out of Quakers' custodian David Preece with a shot on the turn 60 seconds later.

However, this proved to be only a minor reprieve when another two of Darlington's ex-Sunderland stars combined as Gary Bennett headed Brian Atkinson's cross inches over Capleton's bar.

Darlington continued to up the tempo, as they took advantage of Southend's total lack of shape and cohesion, and carved out an opening for Glenn Naylor, but his low 12th minute shot was gathered by Capleton.

Southend temporarily rose above their hosts' dominance with Neville Roach drilling wide of the right post and Conlon hitting a dipping shot from 25-yards just over the bar.

However, Darlington finally got the goal they had threatened following a short-corner routine on 26 minutes.

Southend's sloth-like defence allowed Mark Barnard to knock the flag-kick to Gabbiadini who bundled past Leo Roget and Mark Beard's challenges before squaring the ball to Bennett who sidefooted home from 12-yards.

With a little more composure Conlon could have pulled Blues level seven minutes before the break when he played a neat one-two with left-back Martyn Booty only to lash wildly over the bar from close range.

Another left-flank raid from Booty provided a goalscoring opportunity ten minutes after the restart, but his cross from the by-line was horrendously mis-hit by Unger with the goal at his mercy.

Darlington, grateful for the let-off, stepped up a gear and began to swarm around Blues' box with Gabbiadini hitting over from a good position and Capleton making a fine one-handed stop from Michael Oliver after 71 minutes.

However, the Quakers were kicking themselves for not finishing the job four minutes later as Conlon took advantage of hesitation in the Darlington back-four to curl a superb 25-yard free-kick inside Preece's right-hand post.

Darlington were not about to be robbed though and hit straight back as Steve Tutill, Bennett, Gabbiadini and Oliver all missed close-range sitters.

However, just as they thought the chance of victory had escaped them Darlington conjured up a last-minute winner as Dorner took advantage of a bobble on the pitch to run past the wrong-footed Coleman and hit the ball home across Capleton's despairing dive.

Goalmouth scramble - skipper Simon Coleman and goalkeeper Mel Capleton defend the Blues goal

Crowded out - two Darlington players sandwich Southend forward Neville Roach

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.