The midfielder picked his spot from the corner of the box and saw his effort float over goalkeeper Steve Phillips before hitting the inside of the far post and going in.
It was no more than the Quakers deserved for a polished display of passing and movement that made Rovers look second best for much of the game.
Darlington took a seventh minute lead in a fortunate manner. Gregg Blundell broke through the Rovers defence but his shot was saved by Phillips only for the ball to rebound on to the Darlington player and back into the net.
Try as they might, Rovers could not get their game together and received only a consolation when Craig Disley blasted home a shot from 12 yards in the dying moments.
Four minutes of injury-time gave the home side some hope, but their only chance of that period fell to centre-back Steve Elliott who fired over from the edge of the box.
Darlington played some neat passing football in the first half, but it was Rovers who created the better chances.
Rickie Lambert hit the crossbar with a near-post chip after only two minutes, while Andy Sandell's follow-up effort appeared to come back off a post.
Lambert had a powerful 25th minute header saved by former Rovers keeper Lee Jones, who was one of the stars for Darlington.
He did even better to claw away a 34th minute header from Craig Hinton following a Stuart Campbell free-kick.
Darlington defender David Wheater did well to block a Lambert shot with his chest and Richard Walker volleyed over when he should have done better.
At the other end, the visitors might have increased their lead on 43 minutes when Blundell got behind the Rovers defence and crossed for Alun Armstrong, who miscued his effort as the ball arrived just behind him.
There were 87 hardy Darlington fans in the crowd of 5,511 and they must have enjoyed the way their team moved the ball around to protect their lead in the second half.