HOPEFUL Darlington manager Tommy Taylor has his fingers crossed for that bit of magic to see the Quakers end their miserable winless run with a victory over Plymouth Argyle at Feethams this afternoon, but one man in the opposition's line-up will be looking for a happy return - Neil Heaney.

Alongside players such as Marco Gabbiadini and Steve Tutill, the former Feethams winger was one of the reasons Darlington finished fourth in the 1999/00 season and qualified for that Wembley play-off final.

But this afternoon he'll turn out in the colours of Argyle aiming to demonstrate what Quakers have been missing since he was sold to Dundee United in the summer following that heart-breaking defeat to Peterborough.

He joined the Home Park promotion-chasers at the beginning of December but has been used sparingly. Ironically, manager Paul Sturrock has chosen this afternoon's game to give Heaney only his second start for Argyle.

And with the Quakers enduring a poor time of late, the script is written for Heaney to feature prominently against a Darlington side who will field just three of that losing Wembley team in Paul Heckingbottom, Craig Liddle and Brian Atkinson.

Darlington's current form isn't just poor, it's woeful. Having failed to taste victory in any of their last eight games, stretching back to the 3-1 midweek win at Carlisle on February 5, and with the table-topping outfit providing today's opposition, a victory, it would seem, is unlikely.

Especially so taking into account Darlington's scoring record - four in the last five games, and Plymouth's away form which has seen them win eight times on the road. Resilient Argyle have built this record on a tight defence which Quakers found to their cost at Home Park in December as Darlington lost 1-0.

On that day, Plymouth put in a performance typical of their season as they allowed Darlington possession for much of the game. But their tough defence meant Quakers rarely looked like scoring and with less than five minutes to play Sturrock's side broke away to score the game's only goal.

Nonetheless, Taylor is hoping one of his attack-minded players can conjure up something special to unlock the Argyle rearguard.

"If you have a look at their results away from home you'll see most of them have been either 1-0 or 1-1 because once they get a goal they shut up shop and it's not easy to break them down," he said.

"But we've got players like Wainwright, Clark and Rundle who can do something special or do a bit of magic in their half to open them up and if we can get an early goal they'll have to come at us and that will leave a few gaps in their half of the pitch. They are at the top of the league because they work hard, they get close to you and they don't give you time on the ball."

Despite so many players being out injured - nine at the last count - Taylor says his threadbare squad isn't worried about facing the leaders who have lost just once in their last ten games.

Taylor said: "They are looking forward to it and it'll be a good yardstick for them. We can pass the ball around OK, but they'll be able to see how far they have to go before they're good enough to be a top team like Plymouth.

"It's been a few weeks since we won a game, but it's been a few weeks since we had anything like my first-choice team out there.

"We had a head count this morning and we managed 15 - and that was with three youth team players."

One of those youth team players was Clark Keltie who will fill a substitutes role for the first time since joining Darlington earlier this year.

The 19-year-old midfielder has been deemed good enough to be elevated to the first-team squad for the first time in his career, but Taylor admits the physical nature of some opposition players in the Third Division is a big test for the youngsters who are currently being blooded by Darlington.

He said: "With the young lads, their only difficulty is whether or not they can hack people hitting them.

"I don't just mean off the ball - because that does happen, but I mean people being physical when they're tackling them because in the Third Division you don't get any time on the ball.

"In the Second you get a bit more time and in the First you get even more. In the Premiership nobody tackles you until you reach the last third and then they close you down, but in the Third you have to make your mind up what you are going to do with the ball before you get it.

"I don't want to give lads like Sheeran and Rundle too many games too early. You can't pressurise them because they're only babies."

l Swansea players Roger Freestone and Nick Cusack have been placed in charge of the first team for the match against Carlisle.

The move follows the announcement that manager Colin Addison and his assistant Peter Nicholas will not be offered new deals at the end of this season.

The cash-strapped Division Three club have made the decision not to renew the contracts because of their financial problems.

Club captain Cusack said: ''We want to use all our experience to do our best.