ASSISTANT Alan Cork predicted it would just be a matter of time before Albion broke their duck.

It has been a long time, 455 minutes to be precise, but Albion scored at last.

Fittingly the goal came from the player who had been going through his own nightmare.

Gary Hart had not scored since that Friday night horror show at home to Rochdale in early December.

But he must have rubbed his hands with glee when he realised Darlington were next on the fixture list.

He ended similar lean spells against them at Feethams last season and again in another 1-1 draw at the start of this season.

So when Hart suddenly found himself with space inside the area there could only be one outcome.

He rifled a low right-foot shot across Mark Samways into the far corner of the net, just as Corky has taught him to.

The young striker's sixth of the season was due reward for him and the team.

One thing you can say for Hart, even during his confidence-draining streak, is that he never stops trying. The same was true of Albion in a lively and at times ill-tempered tussle.

Hart spared Lorenzo Pinamonte's blushes. Perhaps the big man was pondering that £75,000 offer from Brentford when he was back to help defend a corner.

The ensuing cross from Neil Heaney should have been headed clear by the Italian. But Pinamonte completely missed it, leaving second- half substitute Peter Duffield to swoop from close range.

That was Darlington's only shot on target and it was probably the right result, even though their manager Dave Hodgson was disappointed with a point.

Both sides had created chances before those two goals in the space of three minutes.

For Albion Pinamonte, Paul Watson and Danny Cullip all forced saves out of Samways from headers.

The first two were routine, the third a good stop at the foot of a post after Cullip escaped to meet a Watson free-kick.

Kerry Mayo fired a shot just wide in the first half when Darren Freeman, whose forceful running down the right kept the Darlington defence busy, also went close with an overhead kick.

It could, however, have been a different story if Marco Gabbiadini had been characteristically clinical.

The Third Division's top scorer, a hat-trick hero in the corresponding fixture last season, might have repeated the feat.

In the first half he volleyed wide from the penalty spot from a Martin Taylor centre and found the side netting with an angled shot after Andy Crosby nodded the ball straight to him.

Then in the second half Gabbiadini, squeezing in-between Darren Carr and Mayo at the far post, somehow failed to convert Heaney's tantalising cross.

There was an edge to the game throughout and referee Mark Halsey had to be on his toes. He booked five players, three of them within 13 minutes in the first half.

Hodgson made some disparaging remarks about Albion's style of play after that identical deadlock back in August. The former Liverpool forward was only marginally more charitable this time.

"Most of Brighton's pressure was not from open play but corners," he claimed. "That is their game. They like set pieces, but I thought we dealt with them."

Albion manager Micky Adams viewed things rather differently from his unfamiliar vantage point in the North Stand. "We started a little bit sloppily and then it was a stalemate," he said. "I couldn't see them scoring.

"Our forward play, particularly down the right, was good. We just needed a little bit of luck.

"I was disappointed with the defending for the goal. Lorenzo knows he should have done better. Maybe he was concentrating on the player rather than the flight of the ball."

Adams prefers to see it as two games unbeaten for his team, not five without a win. Mind you, he wouldn't have seen anything if that steward had carried out his threat to eject him.

Imagine what Adams' last conversation on the walkie-talkie would have been then. "It's all down to you Corky, I'm in the car park!"

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