Darlington manager Gary Bennett is ready to give former Sunderland and Hartlepool striker Paul Beavers an outing for the reserves at Grimsby today.

Beavers, who played for Pool in the first leg of last season's play-off semi-final against Quakers, is having a fortnight's trial with the permission of his current club Oldham - managed by Bennett's former Scarborough team mate Andy Ritchie.

"I know Paul from his days at Sunderland, but he seems to have gone off the rails a little bit recently. I want to see if we can help him recapture his old form," said Bennett.

Beavers will be one of five trialists given an outing today.

They will use two goalkeepers, with former Port Vale keeper Paul Musselwhite and Dutchman Frank van der Geest each playing 45 minutes.

Van der Geest is from the same Dutch club, Heracles, as Quaker striker Ton Kaak.

Frenchmen Lenit Zezu and Christophe Raymond will also play. Striker Zezu impressed with two goals against South Shields last week and if he does impresses again Bennett may think about a permanent deal.

"I want to see what the pair of them are like against stronger opposition than what we've faced so far,'' he admitted.

"Lenit certainly knows where the goal is, and he could give us a new dimension. Christophe has a slight achilles problem, but he should play.

"Even if we do decide to go ahead and sign them, it will be a big jump to the Football League, and we'll have to work on their fitness."

Quakers were relieved yesterday when they learned that they only had five players booked at Rochdale on Saturday.

Quakers thought they would have to pay a £1000 fine under the new FA disciplinary rules for having six players booked, but it emerged that referee Mike Cooper did not show a yellow card to midfielder Glenn Naylor.

Darlington public relations director Luke Raine said: "We've checked with the report the referee left with Rochdale and they have told us that there were only five of our players booked."

Raine, meanwhile, has praised the fans for their support at Spotland and he was encouraged by the positive reaction of fans at a recent meeting. "What came out of the evening was that everybody has the club at heart.

"What we're trying to do now is to spread the base of support by opening up new supporters' branches in Barnard Castle and Sedgefield."

Anyone interested should contact Raine at the club.

Tickets are now on sale for Quakers' home Worthington Cup tie against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday. The match is not all ticket.