Despite Saturday's blip against his former club, defender David Brightwell believes Darlington are on the right track for promotion.

Brightwell, who arrived at Feethams from Hull City earlier this year, endured his worst game of the season on Saturday as the Quakers' defence looked less than solid against a team tipped for relegation.

But after stretching the unbeaten run to five games, he remains upbeat, and is looking for a good return from the next five fixtures.

"We've got Torquay away, Orient and Exeter at home, Macclesfield away, Rushden at home - they're games which we should be looking to get three points from," declared Brightwell.

"No disrespect to any of those teams but we feel that on our day we're a match for anybody. The players in this team have played at a higher level but we can't just expect to get promotion and turn it on and off whenever we want.

"We're seventh in the League and we'll be looking to get back up the table again because we want to push for automatic promotion because we think we're good enough."

Both of Quakers' goals on Saturday came during added on time, and Brightwell is convinced that the players' fitness levels and team spirit were key factors in earning the point.

He said: "We had a fitness coach come in and he's still with us now and everyone's reaping the benefits of that.

"We did have a hard pre-season, it was one of the hardest I've done.

"Last season we wouldn't have got anything out of the game but we kept going to the final whistle and we got a point we just about deserved.

"It does show the character in the side but we don't want to come out and say we're pleased with a point, because we're not.

"We showed ten minutes before half time that we can be a decent team, but we've got to do that for 45 minutes in the first half and in the second.

"We can't wait for 35 minutes to get started. It does show the character we've got but we don't want to have to do that every week because against the teams at the top of the League, who've got a lot of confidence, we won't be able to do it."

Striker Barry Conlon notched his second goal for the club, and both have earned vital points - his first being the winner against Bristol Rovers two weeks ago.

Saturday's result could be viewed as two points lost, but when Quakers went 2-0 down, even a draw seemed an unlikely outcome.

Conlon summed up the mood in the home dressing room, saying: "We played well near the end of the first half trying to come back, but we knew it going to be a battle for us in the second half to grind a result out.

"I think all the lads are gutted with the way we played. It's disappointing but we showed a bit of character to come back and get some sort of result."

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