PHIL Stamp may have been a suprise choice to turn out in goal for Darlington on Saturday - but it wasn't the first time he has appeared between the sticks.

With no recognised goalkeeper on the bench, Phil Stamp volunteered to replace the injured David Knight.

At half-time, with Knight unable to return for the second half after damaging his hip in the opening 45 minutes, manager David Hodgson turned to his subs' bench of five midfielders.

And, while leading contender Neil Maddison was prepared to pull on the gloves, Stamp remembered back to his days at Boro, before changing into Jack Norton's kit.

In May 2000 Stamp was part of Bryan Robson's Boro side, which took part in a three-team tournament in Libya - arranged to ease the country back into the international fold.

It was after an injury to Mark Schwarzer that Stamp went in goal for both of Boro's games, losing 1-0 to Tripoli - who included Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi's son in their side - and 2-0 to Italian outfit Bari.

"I've played there a couple of times before for Middlesbrough so I said that I would go in," revealed the Teessider.

"Knighty was in agony and couldn't move so I didn't really have any hesitation.

"It's one of those unfortunate things and hopefully the injury to Knighty isn't too serious."

Stamp had only been on the pitch ten minutes when he was picking the ball out of the net. However, not even Knight could have got to substitute Steve Scoffham's low drive into the bottom corner.

And, after holding out until the 82nd minute, Stamp conceded a second goal when Dan Martin fired low past Quakers' stand-in keeper.

Despite guessing the right way for Julien Baudet's 87th minute penalty, Stamp somehow managed to let the ball slip past his legs as County went 3-1 up, before Carlos Logan pulled a goal back for Quakers a minute later.

"I didn't really have much chance with the first two goals and I really should have saved the penalty after going the right way," admitted Stamp.

"We should have closed them down quicker for the first goal and for the second it's been quite lucky to go through Taffy's (Ryan Valentine) legs.

"If young Knighty was in for the penalty I think he would have saved it. I picked a corner to get into and tried to save it with my foot, but it went underneath, which was disappointing."

While Quakers will discover the full extent of Knight's injury today, Stamp will hope to feature as an outfield player for the visit of Peterborough United this weekend. But, after making just two starts since joining the club in November, he joked: "At least I'll get a game in goal!"

* Darlington and Hartlepool reserves meet at the 96.6 TFM Darlington Arena this afternoon (2pm).

Read more about the Quakers here.