DARLINGTON will this week offer former Middlesbrough defender Curtis Fleming the chance to end his playing days back in the North-East.

Fleming has signalled his intentions to play out the remainder of his career back in the region after rejecting the chance to remain with Crystal Palace in a player-coach capacity, in order to be with his pregnant wife.

After impressing on trial with the club, Quakers boss David Hodgson believes Fleming has done enough to earn a permanent deal with the club after Saturday's friendly win over Blackpool.

However, Hodgson has admitted, providing the former Republic of Ireland international agrees terms, the 35-year-old will not officially rubber-stamp a one-year deal until the club officially comes out of administration on August 5.

"At the moment we can only sign two players, but we have made the decision to offer Curtis the contract now and it will kick in when we come out of administration," said Hodgson. "He's keen to stay up here to be with his family, which is great news for us because he's a fantastic professional."

And while Hodgson looks set to bolster his defensive ranks ahead of the new season, the Quakers boss has yet to end his search for a new striker. Only Argentinian striker Sebastien Ferrero - who missed the win over Blackpool with a foot injury - remains a serious option, with Hodgson unlikely to follow up his interest in Aron Wilford, Joaquim Ferraz, Vitor Viera and latest arrival Ibrahima N'Diaye. Despite Lens striker N'Diaye's debut goal at the weekend, Hodgson looks set to turn his attentions to former Charlton striker Kim Grant.

The Ghanaian international has been a free agent since leaving Yeovil at the end of the season.

It was N'Diaye who added Quakers' second goal at the weekend after Leandro Scartascini's 50th minute opener, to maintain their unbeaten run in pre-season.

It was at Feethams three years ago that Blackpool crept into the play-offs with a 3-1 win, before sealing promotion via victories over Hartlepool and Leyton Orient.

Now under the stewardship of former Blackburn and Scotland defender Colin Hendry, the Seasiders were at full strength and included on-trial Rangers keeper Alan McGregor in their line-up.

Blackpool striker Matthew Blinkhorn brought a fine save out of recent recruit Sam Russell on 19 minutes. Quakers were forced to re-shuffle minutes later when Matt Clarke limped off to be replaced by Scartascini. The Argentinian was unlucky not to find net on the half hour mark when, after bringing down Ryan Valentine's cross in the box, he was inadvertently stopped in his tracks by teammate Wilford.

And with half-time approaching Scartascini was slow to react to Wilford's cross, before Blackpool defender Gareth Evans cleared.

However, Scartascini - who recently signed a three-month contract - made amends five minutes after the restart to put Quakers one up. After a neat interchange of passes between Mark Convery and Valentine, the latter whipped over a cross intended and missed by Wilford, and poked home by Scartascini at the back post.

With 56 minutes played Hodgson made eight changes, introducing four trialists, including Viera and N'Diaye. And three minutes later the duo combined for Quakers' second goal of the afternoon.

The pony-tailed Viera was played into the box by Chris Hughes, before driving low at McGregor, who could only parry into N'Diaye, who tapped into an empty net.

DARLINGTON: Russell, Clarke (Scartascini 22min, Maddison 56min), Hutchinson (Fleming 56min), Liddle (Viera 56min), Kendrick, Thomas (Keltie 56min), Close (Coghlan 70min), Convery (Onyeike 56min), Valentine (Hughes 50min), Wilford (N'Diaye 56min), Russell (Clark 56min) Subs: Price

BLACKPOOL: McGregor, Evans, Grayson, Flynn (McGregor 62min), Richardson, Bullock (Wiles 45min), Doughty, McMahon, Burns, Taylor (Coid 45min), Blinkhorn (Parker 65min) Subs: Murphy, Edwards, McGregor, Jones.

Result: Darlington 2 Blackpool 0.

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