ANDY Mangan and Phil Edwards froze on their Darlington big screen debuts and will have had their eyes tightly shut for the action replays of Tuesday's clash.
The impressive 25,000 all-seater TFM Arena - which provided a weird atmosphere with just 2790 fans inside - had all the state of the art technology and a huge television flashed the replays of the goals and chances throughout the League Two encounter.
And Mangan will not have wanted to watch a second time as he blasted over in a great position while defender Edwards headed wide with the final chance of the game to stop the Reds coming away with a battling point from the promotion-chasing Quakers.
But while relegation-threatened Stanley wasted a couple of glorious chances, it was two poor defensive errors which cost the Reds dear and left them with their 12th defeat in 19 league games and still perilously close to the drop zone.
It seemed like Bristol Rovers all over again - who had gone 3-0 up in 30 minutes against John Coleman's side - as Darlo cruised into a two goal lead and could have been in a more commanding position by half-time.
But the interval team talk almost did the trick for Coleman to give the 113 visiting fans plenty to continue singing and banging the drum about.
"We said to the players before the game that we had to treat every game like it is the game which is going to keep us up," said the Reds chief.
"We did not see that mentality in the first half so we tried to lift them at half-time and they came out with more fight.
"We scored and it lifted us and if Andy Mangan could have squared the ball to Andy Todd it was a 'gimme' and, right at the death, Phil should have scored with his head. That's disappointing as we deserved to get something out of the game.
"You have got to credit Darlington, though, as they capitalised on their 15 minute spell and banged in two goals and that's what the game is all about - scoring goals - but they were sloppy ones from our point of view."
Coleman continued: "On the positive side, it was a much better performance than last weekend against Stockport and we created more chances in one game than in the last two home games - we can take comfort from that.
"And we showed that if we can retain possession and get the ball to our flair players we can hurt teams - so we have got to make sure we do that, make opposition goalkeepers work and take our chances."
Coleman stayed with 4-4-2 with Todd and Shaun Whalley returning to the starting line-up after Saturday's loss to County.
And it was a lively opening with Tony Grant, Alan Rogers and Jay Harris all trying shots from range while Rommy Boco looked a threat.
But, as has happened all too often this season, Stanley didn't make the most of it and Darlington then pounced.
The Reds should have taken heed from one early scare when Tommy Wright's strike was saved by Przemyslaw Kazimierczak and it fell to former Aston Villa hitman Julian Joachim who amazingly fired wide of the empty net from close range.
And Joachim had another chance which the loan keeper saved and Mickey Cummins' follow up was cleared off the line.
In between, the Reds did still threaten with Whalley's shot from a tight angle easy for Lee Jones and then Boco set the winger up from 12 yards but again Jones was there.
Then, Darlo broke on the left, Martin Smith played in the perfect cross which Robbie Williams couldn't get to and Tommy Wright clipped the ball into the net with Kazimierczak out of his goal and stranded.
"Phil let the ball go over his head and then the keeper rushed out and it left an open goal for the lad - it was a gift," said Coleman.
There was barely time for Stanley to regroup when dangerman Smith was allowed to get another cross in by Williams and, although Edwards jumped, the ball fell nicely for a free header for Greg Blundell.
The striker seems to have a habit of scoring against the Reds as he fired home in the opening day fixture for his old club Chester against Stanley.
"That was just a defensive muddle," fumed Coleman. "They had gone 2-0 up without really getting out of bed."
Every Accrington player and fan must have feared the worst as the defence were in such disarray.
And it could have been a disaster as Dave Wheater's header was then tipped onto the underside of the crossbar by Kazimierczak and back into his welcome arms.
Coleman must have been praying for the half-time whistle to go so he could fire his side into action.
And it worked as, within five minutes of the re-start, Grant found Todd who went racing down the right wing. He twisted and turned into the area and set up Paul Mullin to place home his 11th goal of the campaign.
Todd proved to be at the heart of a Stanley revival as he kept piling on the pressure and putting in superb crosses with Boco just missing out on what would have been a spectacular overhead kick and Whalley having the ball taken off his foot as he raced in to shoot.
Stanley suddenly looked like a team with a mission and, on the hour, Grant sent Whalley racing free and it was four Stanley players against two defenders but the winger went for glory and fired over with his team-mates all waiting to pounce.
It wasn't quite all one-way traffic with experienced striker Alun Armstrong having a goalbound header superbly finger-tipped away by the Polish keeper.
And the former Middlesbrough man appealed for a penalty after he felt he was pulled back - but he fell too easily for the referee's liking.
Then, on 80 minutes, sub Mangan was on his quest to repeat what he did at Wycombe and Macclesfield with a late vital goal.
He broke away and charged into the area with only the keeper to beat and it all looked set up for the equaliser.
The striker could have squared it to the unmarked Todd who was free at the far post but tried his luck and the ball flew well over the bar much to the management's frustration on the bench.
Two minutes later and Mangan again broke but this time chose to pass to Whalley whose shot beat the keeper but was cleared off the line by Ian Miller while the winger blasted the rebound agonisingly over the open goal.
Darlo were reduced to ten men when David Rowson was carried off with a knee injury after they had used their third sub but emergency treatment led him to reappear back on the pitch a couple of minutes later - and hobbling around for the finale.
It got edgy and, in the 93rd minute, Stanley got their final chance when Alan Rogers played in a perfect corner which Edwards did well to shrug off his marker and get his head to. But his powerful header skimmed wide - and he won't want to see a repeat of that miss.
"We didn't get three points but we can take heart. We lost that battle but we gained some advantage in trying to win the war," added Coleman.
