WITH the season just a fortnight away Darlington manager Mick Tait has called on his players to add a ruthless streak to their game.

Quakers, unbeaten in pre-season, continue preparations for the coming campaign, which kicks off at Hull City on August 9, at Northern League Ashington today.

And while Tait is satisfied with the progress which has been made during the summer, he believes his side must now bring an extra edge to their game. "I've told all the lads in training it's been so far so good," said Tait. "The passing has been good and all the games have been a good training exercise.

"Now we've got to start looking at being a little bit more ruthless, not pass the ball so much and pass it when we need to so that we can turn teams a little bit.

"We need to start mixing it up a little bit more."

Tait is expected to hand a second start to trialist Glen Robson this afternoon.

The former Blyth striker was on target in the midweek draw at Queen of the South and Tait was pleased with what he saw of the 25-year-old.

"I thought he did very well considering that was his first game for us," said Tait. "He's a box player and that's what we didn't have last season.

"He showed glimpses of what he can do on Wednesday night and I can see him scoring a lot of goals."

Mark Sheeran and Mark Convery are also included in today's squad following injuries with the latter expected to make his first start of pre-season.

Tait, meanwhile, remains confident goalkeeper Andy Collett will be fit in time for the new season.

"I've spoken to Colly and he's feeling better with every day so there's a very good chance he'll be ready in time," said Tait.

Striker Danny Mellanby will have an X-ray on Monday to determine the extent of a rib injury suffered during the draw at Durham City last week.

Former Quakers duo Paul Campbell and Richard Hodgson have been handed the chance to resurrect their careers at Tommy Taylor's Farnborough Town.

The pair played in Wednesday night's draw with Oxford United and Taylor, who left Quakers in October after a poor run of results, will again run the rule over both players when the Conference side face Millwall today.

Taylor, appointed Farnborough boss towards the end of last season, fielded two different teams in each half and each team also changed strips.