A FUMING Terry Dolan slammed his players for being unprofessional after York City slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Darlington last night.

Former City striker Barry Conlon grabbed a winner for the Quakers just three minutes from time after Lee Bullock's strike had cancelled out Danny Mellanby's first-half goal for Darlington and appeared to put City on course for at least a point.

It wasn't just the lateness of Conlon's winner that annoyed the City chief but the fact the goal was scored within seconds of a City free-kick that saw the ball flung into the Darlington penalty area.

Quakers' goalkeeper Andy Collett caught the ball and immediately released Richard Hodgson, who sprinted away before crossing for Conlon to ram home.

"We threw it away by being unprofessional," said Dolan.

"The game should have finished 1-1 but we weren't professional enough and we allowed them to get a winner late on which is criminal.

"They have scored their winning goal from our free-kick The players should have been more professional, as simple as that."

Dolan was also less than happy with City's defending for Darlington's first goal when Conlon flicked the ball on for Mellanby to race clear.

"Everyone knows what Conlon is like and we didn't react quick enough," he railed.

He added: "We got the equaliser at the start of the second-half and we looked like we would go on and win it then. But, as I said, we weren't professional enough."

Dolan insisted tiredness was "no excuse" nor were the second-half reshuffles enforced because of injuries picked up by Richard Cooper (chest) and Lee Nogan (foot).

"I don't make excuses. We simply have to do better," he said.

"We had no spark up front, we weren't determined enough when we got some great crosses into the box in the first-half and we didn't get on the end of them

"We will have to do better and we have to be more determined if we want to stay up where we should be. The players have got to show that they want it now."

dave.stanford@ycp.co.uk

Updated: 11:39 Wednesday, March 05, 2003