Ian Clark is hoping to avoid an unenviable double when he welcomes his former Hartlepool teammates to Darlington tonight.

Clark was part of the Pool side that lost 2-1 to Quakers at Victoria Park on August 25 and he explained: "I hope I don't manage to end up on the losing side in a derby for two different teams in one season.

"I was booked after five minutes after fouling Neil Wainwright and that was me finished for the game - it was a hell of a tackle as well, but he's a diver!

"I always got booked when playing against Neil. I got a yellow card when he played for Halifax on loan too, let's just hope he has another good game this time.''

Clark has scored three goals in the last five games and set up Mark Sheeran to score at Mansfield at the weekend. Another strike tonight would create a record for the player who arrived at Feethams in November.

He said: "I'm just hoping to carry on the good form I've been in since I joined Darlington.

"I've scored five for Darlington and I scored two at the start of the season for Hartlepool so one more would be my best total."

After spending almost five years with Pool, it seems almost inevitable that Clark will provide one of the evening's talking points, and he doesn't deny he's given some thought to a goal celebration.

Clark, who has slotted in at left-back recently while Paul Heckingbottom covers in central defence, said: "You think to yourself different scenarios that might happen and things go through your head that you'd like to do.

"I hope I score or do something else for the team and not get sent off, because that's happened before. But I think I've grown up a bit since then.

"If I score, what I do afterwards depends on how much stick the Hartlepool fans give me. They might show that they appreciate what I did at Hartlepool in my time there or they might give me some stick.

"I'm the type of player who always gives 100 per cent in every game and that'll certainly be no different.

"It does feel strange to be playing for Darlington in a derby, but that doesn't mean I'll be pulling out of any tackles and I don't think any of the other players, including Hartlepool, will either."

Quakers (from): Finch, Maddison, Reed, Brightwell, Liddle, McGurk, Heckingbottom, Wainwright, Campbell, Atkinson, Rundle, Convery, Harper, Clark, Mellanby, Conlon, Sheeran.

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