Darlington chairman George Reynolds last night jumped to the defence of under-fire manager Gary Bennett.

Reynolds missed the Boxing Day fiasco at Chesterfield, when a section of the travelling fans demanded the sacking of Bennett as Quakers' brief revival was stopped in its tracks.

"There is no pressure on Gary at all," said Reynolds.

"I'm not only 100 per cent behind him, I am a million per cent behind him.

"Gary is still the man for the job. He might have made mistakes, but he's learning all the time.

"I'm going to continue working with him and turn things round. We will be bringing more players in."

Bennett spoke with Reynolds soon after the game at Saltergate, and he said: "The chairman is right behind me.

"He knows what we are going through.

"The performance on Tuesday was very poor, but so were those of a few other teams across the country, looking at the results.

"Maybe it was down to mentality - we have to understand why."

Bennett will also have some deep thinking to do about his team for the away game at second-bottom Exeter City this Saturday as Martin Gray, Paul Heckingbottom, Jesper Hjorth, Gary Himsworth and John Williams are all carrying knocks