Forthright Patrick Collins says Darlington have only themselves to blame for their loss of form and has warned his team-mates to 'buck their ideas up' if they want to gain promotion.

Six consecutive wins have been followed by four defeats in a row and nobody is more concerned at Quakers' sudden nosedive than Collins, who says Darlington should not be blaming referees.

Rookie ref Anthony Taylor - in his first season in the Football League - dismissed three penalty appeals during Quakers' home defeat to Notts County on Saturday and also waved away protests when Collins appeared to be fouled in the build-up to the only goal of the game.

But with Saturday's trip to Wrexham marking the beginning of five games in 15 days over the Christmas and New Year period, Collins preferred to concentrate on Darlington's own failings.

He blasted: "We're turning into a soft touch with losing the last four and we've got to sort things out.

"It's hard to put a finger on where went wrong on Saturday because recently it's been our defending - and I'll hold my hands up because I've been a part of that - but we've got to buck our ideas up and sort it out.

"We keep saying we'll have to stop the rot and start winning again. On Saturday we had a great chance to move up the table, but we threw it away and we need to sort it out because if we're not careful we're going to lose out on that play-off place.

"Like many other players, I don't want to be playing in this division. I want to be playing higher up the league but we don't deserve to be playing higher if we're going to play like this.

"A lot of teams we have played haven't been that impressive but they have ground out results and that's something we are not doing. We've been playing well in spells and unless we start playing consistently we are not going to get anywhere."

Collins, who was made captain earlier in the season when Clark Keltie was injured, appeared to be felled by County's Laurie Dudfield prior to Alan White's winning goal.

The Darlington defender added: "I went for a header and got a push in the back.

"But I don't like to get involved with referees because if we had played well enough we would not have had to depend on a referee's decision. But it was frustrating because a lot of things seemed to be going against us.

"There were two handball shouts and Neil Wainwright was pulled back and had he gone down he might have got a penalty. A lot of the lads were very bitter about it and disappointed but you cannot put it all down to referees.

"We've got to play better and we've got to toughen up."

* Former Football Association compliance officer Graham Bean will assist Bury in presenting their case to the FA Cup committee today after fielding an ineligible player in round two.

The club face a possible fine or even expulsion from the competition after Stephen Turnbull, on loan from Hartlepool, played in the 3-1 replay win over Chester.

A club statement read: ''Graham has extensive knowledge of the football industry's rules, regulations and disciplinary procedures and has been involved in many high-profile investigations and disciplinary hearings in recent years.''