The good times continue to roll for win-happy York City.

Little more than three weeks ago the Minstermen slumped to the bottom of the Football League to lay claim to the sorry tag of the worst team in England.

Current results suggest they are now up there with the basement best - six matches undefeated including three wins on the bounce.

If City can maintain their current form and purpose, previously under-fire Terry Dolan could be walking away with the manager-of-the-month award and, more importantly, the threat of relegation could be a distant memory by the start of April.

As heartening as the results surely are, just as pleasing are City's performances.

For City haven't scraped their points but earned them thanks to a composed and solid backline, a tenacious, efficient midfield and an enterprising attack.

In the first half last night, City played as bright and as positive as at any time during their unbeaten run - as far removed from the side that lost 4-0 to last night's opponents just two months ago as you could hope to imagine.

It was perhaps impossible to maintain their frantic pace and if in the second half City struggled to maintain possession and reach the standards they had set in the first at least they gave Darlington few sights of goal.

And that in itself is another cause for satisfaction, another sign of a 'team' unified in its aim; when the chips are down and things aren't going their way they roll up their sleeves and dig in.

To be fair, City probably deserved their three points for their first-half performance alone.

Steve Agnew saw an early screamer deflected over the bar, Colin Alcide had Peter Keen scrambling to tip over a cute lob and shaded a header just past the upright before Lee Bullock also went close with a header before seeing another goal-bound strike diverted for a corner.

Although in Clint Marcelle Darlington possessed a livewire, trick-in-the-box, rarely did the Quakers threaten. Just once was Alan Fettis in the City goal called into action and then only to save a rather tame effort from Mark Ford.

As the clock started to tick down for the half-time whistle and after knocking at the door, City finally found the key.

The tenacious Richard Cooper swung the ball in to the far post where Graham Potter made a nuisance of himself.

The loose ball sat up nicely for Nick Richardson, whose blast from 15 yards threatened to take all before it and was a strike of which Roy Race would have been proud.

The half-time whistle perhaps came at the wrong time for City, who by now were building up a head of steam.

Within seconds of the restart Alcide had a gilt-edge chance to put the game beyond the reach of the Quakers.

Cooper made a swift break down the right before centring for the born-again Alcide, who could only pass his shot into the arms of Keen.

From then on, a sometimes careless City made hard work of it.

Possession was too easily squandered and the Minstermen failed to build up any concerted forward momentum.

Naylor drilled a free-kick into the side-netting before heading into the arms of Fettis while Olivier Bernard and Ford tried their luck from range.

But for all Darlington's new-found possession rarely did they threaten to pierce the City backline, once again marshalled superbly by Matt Hocking, a player whose stunning form has epitomised City's phoenix-like rise from the ashes.

To prove the point, Darlington's considerable travelling support were less than impressed with their team's application and made their feelings known with chants of 'what a load of rubbish'.

Just to rub salt in the wounds, City broke free of their self-imposed shackles to seal the points with a well executed breakaway goal.

Workaholic Lee Nogan had few options when collecting the ball on the half-way line.

But the former Darlington striker spun out to the left, shrugged off a couple of challenges before rolling the ball into the path of Richardson.

The midfielder advanced before playing in Alcide, who coolly slotted the ball past the advancing Keen.

Fettis underscored his value to the Minstermen with a superb one-handed save to deny Naylor at the death but by then the richly deserved points were already in the bag for the Minstermen.

York city 2 Darlington 0

YORK CITY: Alan Fettis 7, Richard Cooper 8, Barry Jones 7, Matt Hocking 8, Mark Bower 7, Graham Potter 7, Lee Bullock 7, Steve Agnew 7 (David McNiven 85mins), Nick Richardson 8, Lee Nogan 8, Colin Alcide 7 (Alex Mathie 90mins).

Subs, not used: Russ Howarth, Gary Hobson, Neville Stamp

Booked: Cooper 25mins (unsporting conduct) Sent off: None Scorers: Richardson 41mins, Alcide 84mins

DARLINGTON: Peter Keen, Phil Brumwell, Craig Liddle, David Brightwell, Steve Harper, Glenn Naylor, Mark Ford, Mark Kilty, Kirk Jackson (John Williams 72mins), Clint Marcelle, Olivier Bernard

Subs not used: Keith Finch, Paul Campbell, Richard Hodgson, Mark Convery

Booked: Liddle 26mins (foul), Marcelle 66mins (unsporting conduct), Kilty 76mins (foul) Sent off: None

Man of the match: Nick Richardson Scored one, had a decisive hand in another and chased and harried all night to win possession for City .

Updated: 14:31 Wednesday, March 14, 2001