CURTIS FLEMING believes former Middlesbrough team-mate Craig Hignett made the right decision when he returned to the North-East with Darlington last week.

And Fleming should know more than anybody, having shunned one final fling in the Premiership to join Quakers during the summer.

After rejecting a one-year contract with Crystal Palace, Manchester-born Fleming made the decision to move back to the region to be with his family.

Similarly, Hignett was keen to remain in the area after seeing a permanent move to Leeds fall through last week.

And while Fleming has no regrets about dropping down to the Football League basement for the first time in his career after an impressive start, he has no doubts that Quakers, under David Hodgson, are a team suited for flair players like Hignett.

He said: "People have this idea that it must be difficult to come down to this level when you've played most of your career at the top level but it's not true.

"If I was playing for a team who were launching the ball every two minutes then it might have been different, but that's not the case here.

"I think Higgy has been pleasantly surprised that we do like to get the ball down and pass it around a bit.

"That's how he likes to play and I have no doubt that he will settle in straight away."

Hignett marked his Quakers debut with a goal to salvage a point in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Rochdale.

And Fleming believes Hignett has the ability to get the better of more League Two defences this season.

He added: "He has a lot of quality and I'm sure he'll be a marked man, but he's had that throughout his career because of the way he plays.

"The one minute he did get away from his marker today he scored and I think that shows his quality as a player.

"I thought he might get a goal today but I wasn't expecting a header at the far post!"

Hignett's late leveller earned Quakers their third consecutive draw.

And while Fleming was satisfied with a point, he believes Rochdale won't be the only team to attempt to stifle their game this season.

"We were happy to take a point but it was disappointing that we couldn't play how we wanted to," said Fleming.

"We knocked the ball around really well against Scunthorpe last week but Rochdale didn't allow us to do that.

"It's something teams are going to do against us and if we want to play the way we want to play then we have to learn to deal with it."

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