Darlington get their longest trip of the season out of the way when they play at Yeovil Town this evening and are hoping that history will repeat itself at Huish Park.

Much has been made recently of Quakers' poor opening day home record - used by manager David Hodgson to motivate his players - and on Saturday they ended the jinx, beating Grimsby Town 1-0 to secure a first home win on the season's opening day for 22 years.

And the omens are good because the last time the League Two outfit marked the start of a league campaign with a win - a 2-0 triumph over Rochdale in August 1982 - they went on to take all three points in their following fixture; a 5-2 success at Crewe Alexandra.

Victory tonight would not only mirror the start to season 1982/83 but also mark Quakers' most successful start to a season since 1999/00 when Hodgson, in his second of three spells at the club, led Darlington to wins at Halifax Town and at home to Macclesfield Town.

That campaign ended in a fourth-place finish and a trip to the play-off final, but assistant manager Mark Proctor isn't predicting matching that achievement, instead preferring to concentrate on claiming Quakers' first win at the Glovers since a 2-0 GM Vauxhall Conference victory almost 15 years ago.

Proctor admitted Darlington's defence on Saturday couldn't be described as watertight and said: "There were a lot of opportunities at either end of the pitch which we certainly weren't happy about.

"But that was possibly due to a bit of rustiness on our part, or maybe because Curtis Fleming was missing - or even a bit of both.

"Yeovil are quite well-fancied this year so we can't take them lightly just because they lost at Bury on Saturday.

"We've watched a video of that game, so we found out a bit more about them.

"As one of the favourites they're obviously a good side and just missed out on the play-offs last season so we're going to have another tough game because Grimsby were a good side too."

After travelling to Somerset yesterday Darlington held a light afternoon training session when Fleming tested out the sore ankle he twisted late last week in training. If he suffers no reaction he can expect to make his first start for Quakers after missing the Grimsby match, while tonsillitis victim Matt Clarke is in the squad and has recovered well since Saturday.

A fit Fleming would open the door for Brian Close to return to the centre of midfield in place of either Clark Keltie or Stephen Thomas, but it's the forward line which is still giving Darlington a headache.

Barry Conlon's locker in the changing room remains vacant since leaving for Barnsley and although Clarke played on Saturday alongside the hard-working Craig Russell until he was substituted in the second-half, his place in the forward line is only a temporary arrangement until Quakers solve their perennial problem.

West Ham United striker Gregory Pearson trained with the club at the end of last week and Hodgson and Proctor will watch him in action tomorrow playing for his club's reserves against Crystal Palace, who will also feature a potential loan signing.

Yeovil are one of the season's promotion favourites and held a half-time lead at Gigg Lane on Saturday with Argentine striker Adrian Caceres scoring on his debut, but the Glovers made costly individual errors in the second period and went on to lose 3-1.

Darlington (from): S Russell, Valentine, Liddle, Huthinson, Fleming, Kendrick, Convery, Close, Keltie, Thomas, Clarke, C Russell, Scartascini, Hughes, Wainwright, Clark, Maddison, Price.

* Conlon played the full 90 minutes but failed to score on his Tykes debut in their 1-1 draw at MK Dons at the weekend.

* Notts County have signed 20-year-old Aston Villa 'keeper Wayne Henderson on a three-month loan ahead of the trip to Kidderminster.

Magpies boss Gary Mills swooped after Steve Mildenhall's error gifted Chester an equaliser in the weekend's 1-1 Meadow Lane draw while second-choice Saul Deeney is struggling with injury.

Read more about the Quakers here.