Manager Gary Peters felt that his side deserved something out of the game following their second half performance.
But the match statistics show that Darlington keeper David Stockdale made his first save in the 76th minute and, apart from a brave save from Dave Hibbert in the dying seconds, it was a fairly comfortable evening for the man between the sticks.
Darlo won the game thanks to two wide men. In the 27th minute former Aston Villa striker Julian Joachim played an excellent one-two with defender Neil Austin and when Joachim found himself in space inside the area his low shot was struck low into the bottom corner of the net past the stranded Glyn Garner.
In the second half a shot from Marc Tierney in the 48th minute went close for the visitors, but Darlington struck back and the Shrews goal was breached yet again in the 62nd minute when defender Alan White headed the ball out to on-loan winger Joe Colbeck.
He played a one-two with Gregg Blundell and when Colbeck received the return pass he fired the ball beyond the despairing dive of Garner.
Darlington ended the game brightly and three minutes from time Blundell saw his rising drive from the edge of the area flash narrowly over the crossbar.
In the dying seconds Town poured forward in search of some form of consolation and when Hibbert broke clear with only Stockdale to beat it looked a certain goal, until the keeper bravely dived at the on-rushing striker's feet to deny the frontman.
Disappointingly for promotion chasing Darlington the game was watched by a stadium record low crowd of only 2,628.
Most of the missing crowd will have stayed at home in the warmth watching the Champions League. But they missed a cracker.