When Craig Liddle scored at Hartlepool in the play-off semi-finals for Darlington in May 2000, he reached what he believes was the peak of his career.

Liddle wants a repeat performance on Saturday when he leads out his teammates at Victoria Park for the 141st derby between the two clubs, but the talented defender acknowledges Quakers must tighten up at the back.

Two goals within the opening 15 minutes were Darlington's downfall at Huddersfield on Tuesday night, and both strikes came via slack defensive work on Quakers' part.

The Darlington captain knows Pool will capitalise on any defensive frailties, but as well being determined to shore up a backline which has kept just one clean sheet in seven games this season, Liddle has an eye on scoring again at Hartlepool.

"Scoring in the play-off was probably the highlight of my career and I would love to do that again," said Liddle who has tasted derby defeat in just two of the nine he has played.

"That would be ideal, but I'm not bothered who scores as long as we get a result there.

"On Tuesday we started badly and gave two soft goals away so I think it's important that we learn from that and don't take that into Saturday.

"If you look at Tuesday's game we've done well against a team who should do well in the Second Division this season so we can take a few pluses out of the performance because we created chances, but we've got to cut out the silly errors at the back."

One of Liddle's closest friends in the game is fellow Northern Echo Sport columnist and Hartlepool captain Micky Barron. With an expectant home crowd and a good beginning to the season behind them, Darlington's skipper says the pressure is on Barron and co to perform on Saturday.

"I spoke to him last week and I think they're looking forward to it but I think the pressure is on them because they are at home and they are at the top," said Liddle. "We've just got to defend properly and hopefully get a result.

"When the fixtures come out the first one you look for is your first game of the season and then you find out when you're playing Hartlepool home and away.

"It's been hard not to think about Saturday's game. Obviously, we were supposed to concentrate on the Huddersfield game but the Hartlepool game was always at the back of our minds.

"Derbies are the biggest games of the season and every professional likes to play in them."

Of the 959 spaces allocated to Darlington, around 200 tickets are still available for the game aand they are on sale from the Feethams club shop, which opens at 10am, until 5pm tomorrow.

Darlington have more tickets this year as Pool have installed more seats in the Rink End.

Read more about the Quakers here.