After proving both his fitness and form during a month on loan at York City, David McGurk has appealed to Darlington manager David Hodgson to throw him back into first-team action.

After helping to shore up what was a shaky defence at Bootham Crescent the Teessider has returned to Quakers and set his sights on earning a recall.

With McGurk an unused sub, lowly Notts County rattled Darlington on Tuesday and eventually opened the scoring from a free-kick - the third goal from a set-piece Quakers have conceded in the last three games.

Darlington's back-line has been solid this season - only tomorrow's opponents Swansea have conceded less in League Two - but individual defensive errors littered last Saturday's defeat against Bury while Quakers were again stretched on Tuesday.

With the injured Craig Liddle, Curtis Fleming and Joey Hutchinson all out of the frame for the foreseeable future, McGurk could come back into the reckoning at top-of-the-table Swansea.

McGurk, 22, was carrying a back injury during the summer but is now fully recovered and said: "I'm hoping I'll get a chance in the team now.

"I'm back in training with the lads and want to get back in.

"If I'd had a good pre-season I think I might have been in the team by now but I was out with a bad back which is fine now. I hurt my ribs against Morecambe but that only took a week to recover.

"It was good to test myself in first team football instead of Darlington reserves.

"I'd much rather play Conference football at York than the reserves at Darlington because it's higher standard."

Having replaced Matt Clarke's brother Chris in the York side, McGurk made five league starts in which the Minstermen lost just once, against Morecambe, and even then the winning goal came after he left the field through injury.

"I had a good month at York, I played a few games and the results were good - I enjoyed it," said McGurk who made his Quakers' debut almost three years ago.

"I played alongside Gary Pearson most of the time - I did quite well and he got player of the month.

"It never crossed my mind that I could've been forgotten about by the Darlington manager.

"Every now and again I trained with Darlington and knew he wanted me back when Joey and Curtis got injured but I couldn't come back because of a 28-day clause in my loan.

"And Mark Proctor came to watch me play against Blackpool in the LDV Vans Trophy so I knew I was in their plans.

"I don't know if I'll be going back down to York because they've only got two league games in the next month - their other match is cup game and the gaffer doesn't want me cup-tied - so as they haven't got much money the York manager said he was a bit wary about having me for just two games."

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