Manager Roddy Collins thought his team should have won and said: “I thought we were robbed of two points. It was a complete fiasco. There lad was at least a yard offside and two further players were offside when he released it. They say decisions even themselves out over a season but I feel that we haven’t had much in the way of decisions so far. But I think we did enough on the Park today to have beaten them. We were a little over anxious at times but had a lot of good possession in the box but rushed things and maybe needed to take an extra touch.”

Darlington manager Mick Tait was pleased with his team’s performance under difficult conditions. He said: “The pitch was difficult and cut up badly. I decided to leave the fullbacks out to give a bit more strength at the back and was pleased the way it worked. Our first goal could have been offside but there was no doubt with the penalty and they had some good fortune with their second goal but overall I was pleased with the point.”

Carlisle got off to the best possible start with only eight minutes gone. Richie Foran broke into the box and former Carlisle defender Stuart Whitehead was harshly adjudged to have pulled him back. Craig Farrell strode up to confidently place the resulting penalty into the bottom corner past Andy Lonergan.

Lonergan then got down well to turn a Farrell shot for a corner and Glennon showed good reflexes to parry an Ashley Nicholls shot away with Barry Conlon’s shot from the rebound blocked by team-mate Richard Hodgson.

But the Quakers pulled level on 19 minutes in controversial circumstances. Richard Offiong played the ball out to Hodgson and kept his run going to take the return pass, but with no offside flag forthcoming he used the good fortune to good effect by shooting across the advancing Glennon into the bottom corner.

Offiong, again looking offside, went through moments later but Glennon did well to come out to save at the forwards feet.

Craig Liddle went close with a close range header from a Nicholls corner before Carlisle regained the lead with 37 minutes gone. Mark Summerbell’s pass into the box allowed Mark Hudson to turn well before hitting a shot which took a deflection off his other foot to bobble over Lonergan and creep over the line.

Four minutes into the second half Lonergan saved well from Farrell and then the Carlisle striker pulled a shot wide after Summerbell had played him in.

The Darlington goal was coming under increasing pressure and Lonergan saved from a Kelly header with Hudson’s shot from the loose ball being cleared off the line by Clark Keltie.

But the Quakers weathered the storm and levelled for the second time with 63 minutes gone, when Conlon was judged to have been pulled back by Byrne and Offiong made no mistake from the penalty spot.

With ten minutes remaining Conlon should have given Darlington the lead but missed the target with a free header following good work from Hodgson down the left.

Brian Wake then had an easier chance for the Cumbrians but failed to get any power on his shot with only Lonergan to beat.

With time running out Hudson did well to latch onto Farrell’s layoff but lifted his shot over the bar and Wainwright shot over for Darlington from a Conlon knock down.