THE season may be almost over but Stanley are still re-writing their history books.

After seeing off Darlington on Tuesday night, the Reds made it three wins in a row - the first time this has happened since their return to League Two three seasons ago.

They also got one over on the Quakers - the Reds hadn’t taken a point in their five previous meetings with Dave Penney’s side.

And they now have a new player who will grab Stanley’s top scorer crown off Paul Mullin in Jimmy Ryan who made it 10 goals for the season with his 22nd minute thunderbolt.

The midfielder took the 25-yard free kick perfectly - curling it beyond the diving Andy Oakes - and admitted it was one of his best.

"I haven’t scored a better free-kick than that, that’s for sure," said the ex-Liverpool man. "To be fair the keeper gave me quite a bit of room to aim for and I just tried to get it around the wall and it went in so I was made up."

It was certainly one for him to be proud off and one he will be glad will stand with the game lucky to go ahead in atrocious rainy conditions after it had already been postponed twice.

Perhaps meeting Darlington on the original January date might have produced a different outcome as they pushed for promotion and the Reds were in their indifferent spell.

But a ten point deduction for going into adminstration has stopped the Quakers in the stride and they have been plagued with injuries.

Meanwhile, Stanley have found some of the best form of their League Two lives - except a seven game unbeaten run in their first campaign - and have hit 16th in the table, something manager John Coleman would have dreamed of a few weeks ago during their eight game winless run.

But the Darlington win was deserved with Ryan shining, young winger Chris Turner getting better every game and keeper Kenny Arthur pulling off a string of stunning saves in the rain to collect a welcome 10th clean sheet of the season.

Not that it was welcome for Coleman who had promised that, on Soccer AM, he will let his players take shots at his backside for reaching the 10-clean sheet target.

"I have to do it." he said. "There is only Jimmy Ryan and Ian Dunbavin to fear. The rest won’t hit me."

But it is amazing what confidence there now is among the players, despite the loss of star striker Mullin, and 13 points out of the last 15 has certainly lifted the gloom there was around the FES.

"It was a hard fought battle against Darlington," said Coleman. "Sometimes they say you have to be able to win ugly and that’s not to say there wasn’t some good football out there by both sides but the conditions made it difficult.

"Jimmy has those kind of goals in his locker and he had a smashing game but there were a lot of big performances out there. Kenny Arthur was exceptional in the second half and kept us in the game with four or five great saves.

"We had to do a lot of defending in the second half but we coped admirably."

The Reds were forced into a late change when captain Peter Cavanagh injured his calf in the warm-up and Colin Murdock stepped in.

But it didn't stop them and, despite the conditions, Ryan had an effort pushed away by Oakes while John Miles’ tame shot fell nicely for the stopper.

The only real threat to Stanley’s goal came when Kieran Charnock lost the ball on the halfway line and almost let one-time Reds target Danny Carlton in but the defender raced back to block his shot.

Then came Ryan’s blast after Chris Turner had been fouled by Tim Ryan and it could have been 2-0 at the break with Oakes scrambling back to stop Lindfield’s shot trickling over the line.

Sweeping football was at a premium as the pitch got muddier but, on the stroke of half-time, Stanley put together a good move when Turner won the ball and found Michael Symes who threaded it through for Lindfield but Oakes was off his blocks quickly to smother the ball.

Darlington boss Penney admitted he "woke his side up" at half-time and they came close to an equaliser with Arthur pulling off a superb double save to deny Rob Purdie from close range.

Then the game erupted on the hour when a late, hard tackle by Franz Burgmeier on Turner ended with Lindfield raising his arms at the winger in retaliation. Referee Andy Woolmer showed both Burgmeier and Lindfield yellow cards with the Stanley striker lucky his punishment wasn’t harsher.

And, just after that, Darlington's Purdie fired across the goal and narrowly wide as they hunted for the equaliser.

But Stanley did burst into life with 20 minutes left with Turner forcing a diving save out of Oakes and a looping Lindfield effort had to be finger tipped over by the ex-Derby keeper in a lively finish.

Wideman Turner almost doubled the Reds advantage at the death after racing into the area but Oakes again denied him while Arthur scrambled a Pawel Abbott shot into his arms to make sure the Reds secured another three vital points.

The fans could get used to these winning ways.