THE manager of Darlington’s opponents on Saturday, Jimmy Ginnelly, revealed after the match that he had expected his Barwell team lose, especially due to the lack of players he had available.

Injuries had depleted the Leicestershire club’s squad, now 14th in the table after overcoming Quakers 2-1, and filled their bench with stand-ins.

Three months ago Darlington beat Barwell 3-1 at Heritage Park, but the tables were turned on Saturday at Kirkby Road.

“When we finished the game at Darlington I said that we had probably seen the title favourites, and I feel the same today,” said Ginnelly, who led his club to the first round of the FA Cup this season for the first time in their history.

“They were big and strong, they look like they’re set up for the title and I expected them to come here and win, especially with the numbers that we’ve got.

“We’re a small club with a small squad. We didn’t have many players to name as a sub, we had the assistant manager and a coach on there, and we’ve produced a result like that from the XI that we’ve got.

“Their two wingers are good so we tried to stop them playing, and we moved our captain back from the middle of midfield to mark Graeme Armstrong. He did that fantastically well. You do that, and keep the wingers quiet, you limit Darlington’s chances.”

Quakers were 1-0 behind at the break, and it was 2-0 on 50 minutes. Ginnelly added: “I was expecting an absolute onslaught in the second half, but it didn’t really materialise.

“Our back four were really strong, the midfield worked their socks off and the two lads up front defended from the front and we limited them their chances.

“It was a hardworking performance.”

Quakers manager Martin Gray revealed that he had changed formation and team selection based on the conditions at Kirkby Road, including the pitch.

Ginnelly added: “Darlington are such a massive club at this level, nice pitch, big support, and then they come to Barwell. We probably shouldn’t have played our FA Cup game here two weeks ago because we destroyed the pitch and put it in that state.

“We’re having a good season but we’re not in anyone’s eyes because of the position we’re in and we’re a small club.”