IT could be said that Craig Hignett could take on the cream of League Two with his eyes closed, but the Darlington star took that theory literally on Saturday.

Hignett almost pulled out of the 3-0 win over Leyton Orient before a ball had even been kicked after suffering a migraine moments before kick-off.

But after laying on an assist for Quakers' opening goal after five minutes at the weekend, it was the Orient defence which had the biggest headache come 4.45pm.

"I had a severe headache and my vision was going in the warm-up," said Hignett. "I think I played about 60 minutes without seeing the ball properly."

Despite the win, Hignett was less pleased with the way in which his side secured maximum points at the Williamson Motors Stadium.

"I'm made up about the result but I don't think we played well at all," admitted Hignett. "We scored early on and I think that was a bad thing because we seemed to relax a little bit, as if it was going to be easy from there.

"It's not like that and you have to keep going.

"Once we got the second goal we clicked into gear and started passing the ball around really well.

"It's amazing how much it lifts people when you score a goal."

With three straight wins - a feat achieved for the first time since February - Quakers are in danger of finding some consistency after moving up to fifth in League Two.

"The manager will start being pleased soon," joked Hignett. "That's put us up to fifth but we have to remember that there's still not much in it at the moment.

"Hopefully now we can go on and have a really good second half of the season."

And Hignett hopes Quakers' promotion push will be helped by former Middlesbrough striker Alun Armstrong.

Armstrong's contract expires this week and a number of clubs are weighing up an approach for Quakers' eight-goal leading scorer.

"He is very important to the club because he scores goals," said Hignett.

"It's up to Alun what he wants to do but the gaffer has looked after him really well.

"I don't think he will get looked after better anywhere else.

"Hopefully we can keep him because he's a big part of our team.

"If we are going to go up then we will need players like Alun next year too."

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