David Hodgson has backed Darlington's latest strikeforce to fire Quakers back into the play-off zone.

Andy Cooke became Darlington's ninth different striker of the season when he made a scoring debut last week at Peterborough United alongside fellow loanee Kyle Lafferty as Hodgson continues his hunt for a regular striker-partnership.

On loan from Bradford City, the 32-year-old has come into the team for the dropped Akpo Sodje and follows the likes of Clyde Wijnhard, Simon Johnson and Tresor Kandol during a season in which Darlington have struggled to field a settled forward line.

Cooke was denied a last minute equaliser against Shrewsbury Town on Saturday when keeper Joe Hart leapt to his right to push the striker's header around the post, while Cooke had other scoring chances but Lafferty failed to trouble Hart.

Hodgson said: "We have two strangers on the frontline in Kyle and Andy so we need to work on things in training but it will fall into place.

"I have no worries about it working between the pair of them.

"Experienced players do the right things at the right time and that's what Andy did today.

"He missed out on a goal against his hometown club which he will be disappointed about.

"He had an opportunity at the end with a header and he probably thinks he should have scored at least one goal but Rome was not built in a day.

"Kyle and Andy will get better and build-up a partnership between themselves."

* Darlington's reserves are at home to Scarborough today (2pm).

* Darlington's youth team completed a league double over Hartlepool United on Saturday with a comprehensive 5-0 win.

Striker Gavin Parkin opened the scoring inside ten minutes after which Martin Gray's side never looked back, going on to dominate the game.

Richard Logan, on his 18th birthday, added the second before centre-back Mark McLeod made it 3-0.

Logan grabbed the fourth before substitute Michael Lawson wrapped up the scoring.

Gray said: "The lads were buzzing afterwards. It was a strong performance from start to finish, we kept a clean sheet and we dominated the game."

Darlington: Wright; Casson, McLeod, Clarke, Janes; Patterson, Hughes, Tait; Logan, Reay, Parkin. Subs: Lawson, Hardman.

Read more about the Quakers here.