THEIR unbeaten run may have continued but Darwen boss Steve Wilkes was far from happy with his side's attitude at Castleton in the NWCL Division Two match.

"We had won five games on the bounce and against a side who have only taken seven points all season you would have expected to win, but I think that was exactly our problem," said Wilkes.

"The lads were having a laugh and joke beforehand and I have no problem with that, but when kick-off comes we never switched on.

"I felt our players thought they could win just by turning up and that is never the case and our poor attitude ended up with our being lucky to come away with even a point."

Darwen's sloppy approach was punished as early as the 15th minute when Gabriels' Mark Dinning broke on the right and his awkward cross was turned into his own net by Darwen defender Matt Atkinson.

The visitors pulled level ten minutes before half-time when Matt Swailes great run and cross provided Paul Baker with his 32nd goal of the season, however Baker was injured and had to be replaced at half-time.

And their problems were compounded two minutes into the second period when Jimmy Khan was sent off after he reacted to a heavy challenge by Castleton's Lee Kershaw.

Despite this Darwen came close to scoring soon after when David Rhodes' long ball put Swailes through one on one with Gabriels keeper Darren Ford only for the stopper to make a good one-handed save.

The numbers were even again when Castleton's Lee Higginbottom was sent off for a second yellow card, but it was Darwen who were holding on at the end with keeper Lee Purvis saving well from Andy Entwistle and Andy Meehan.

"We needed to keep winning but we didn't have our frame of mind right," said Wilkes.

"I was disappointed with Jimmy, he let the club, his fellow players and himself down with the way he got sent off.

"Hopefully we shouldn't have the same attitude problems when we play Bacup tomorrow night and perhaps the biggest plus was that Bacup boss Brent Peters came to watch the game, so he will have gone away thinking we are a poor team."

CASTLETON... 1 DARWEN...1