DARLINGTON will discover today the date for their rescheduled match with Northampton Town.

Quakers are hoping to rearrange the game, postponed following the Cobblers 2-1 win over Rotherham in the FA Cup third round replay on Tuesday night, for January 27.

However, they may face opposition from Northampton, who face Man. United just two days before and have a League game the following Friday.

Quakers are in dire need of the gate receipts from home games as they battle for survival, and Ian Atkins' side's Cup progress was bad news for Darlington.

Northampton travel to Doncaster the Friday after the preferred date for the rearranged game, but manager David Hodgson has contingency plans.

If Northampton say no, Hodgson hopes Oxford, whose game at Darlington's isn't until April, will agree to a rearranged game as they also have a blank weekend.

Hodgson's priority is stage a league game a week on a Saturday, but if that fails a fundraising match against high profile opposition is a possibility with Leeds United top of the wanted list.

Almost 22 years ago the club needed £60,000 to stave off extinction, and part of the Save The Quakers appeal was a friendly match against Southampton, who featured Kevin Keegan.

A similar game is a possibility and, as Leeds are out of the FA Cup, they would be free to play, as would Bolton and Blackburn who are both in Hodgson's plans.

Hodgson said: "I've already been on to Northampton and Oxford to ask them to play and if both of those fail I'm going to look at which Premiership teams don't have a fixture that weekend.

"I'm hoping one of them may be interested in keeping things ticking along by playing us.

"Leeds would be a great game for us. I'm going to get in touch with Eddie Gray as soon as possible.

"I spoke to Bolton's manager Sam Allardyce earlier today about the possibility of playing them but he's in Lyon at the moment and he wants to wait until he gets back from France so he can speak to his directors before he can give me an answer.

"In the meantime I'm going to ring Blackburn.

"But the most important match for us is Northampton because we have to fulfill that fixture."

The infamous pitch problems in 1998-99 caused havoc with Quakers' fixture list, causing several Feethams matches to be postponed including home games with Hull and Carlisle - both of whom were struggling.

And by the time the games were eventually played, both clubs had signed new players and were in far better form - a scenario Hodgson wants to avoid.

"I'd rather play Northampton now while they're at the bottom and struggling and not later in the season when they'll be flying because they've had a good Cup run and the club will be buzzing," said the Quakers boss.

"We've been there before five years ago and it cost us points which, I think, cost us a play-off position."

With a money-spinning fundraising match in mind, a game against either of the Glasgow giants, Celtic or Rangers, has been mooted by hopeful fans.

However, Hodgson is wary, citing expensive policing costs as a stumbling block.

"The problem with playing Celtic or Rangers is policing costs which can be up to £100,000," he said. "They bring a lot of fans but you could have a crowd of 10,000 paying £10 to get in and the gate receipts would be gone in one fell swoop to the police."

Read more about the Quakers here.