IT was only last month that Darlington turned in their best performance of the season - and arguably in many years - in a 3-1 win at Lincoln City.

At Wrexham today, and with virtually the same starting XI that secured a fourth straight victory under new manager Dave Penney at Sincil Bank, the Quakers boss insists there is no reason why his side cannot rediscover their impressive early form under his stewardship.

After four successive defeats, the six back-to-back wins seem a distant memory.

Penney's barnstorming start has come off the rails in spectacular fashion, perhaps inevitably given the catalogue of injuries he has had to contend with.

But with the gradual return to fitness of key players, Penney expects much improvement from his side at the Racecourse Ground this afternoon.

"Everybody knows where our problems are, but we're starting to get players back now," said Penney.

"Darren Holloway has had a good ten days under his belt to train, so we're more or less back to the team that played at Lincoln - there are no more excuses.

"We've got a reasonable back four in Holloway, Brian Close, Patrick Collins and Craig James, who all played at Lincoln."

However, Penney will be expecting more from his strikers, who have scored one goal between them in his ten games in charge.

Of the forwards, only Simon Johnson has found the net, while former Premiership strikers Julian Joachim and Alun Armstrong have not scored for ten and eleven games respectively.

"It's all about confidence with strikers," said Penney. "We've got to make sure we get the ball in the right areas for them to score - I don't think we did that in our last game.

"Julian Joachim and Alun Armstrong have played at the top level and they have the quality to score goals."

While Penney has every belief that Joachim will come good when he regains full match fitness, the Quakers boss would like a better return than he got from Armstrong during the forward's brief stint at Doncaster last season.

The former Middlesbrough striker failed to net in five appearances at Belle Vue and Penney said: "My only problem with Alun at Doncaster was that I couldn't get him in the position to score goals.

"Now that we are getting him into positions he needs to start scoring and he knows that."

Despite Darlington's recent losing streak, culminating in the Notts County defeat seven days ago, Penney remains upbeat.

But for some poor refereeing decisions, the Quakers boss felt his side could have come away with at least a point last weekend.

He said: "It's not really difficult to lift the players. They didn't get too carried away with six wins on the trot and we're not going to get carried away with three or four defeats.

"We've watched the Notts County video and we feel a little bit hard done by with some of the decisions which went against us.

"We know we didn't play well in the first half but I thought we were the better team in the second and we looked like we were going to go on and get a result."

Despite the recent freezing conditions, milder temperatures in north Wales means there are no plans for a pitch inspection.

However, the recent cold snap has done little to help Darlington's preparations.

Penney's men have trained indoors for most of the week at the Soccerena complex in Durham.

"It doesn't help when you're planning for games and you're trying to find a suitable pitch, but I suppose it's been the same for every other club in the country," said Penney.

The Quakers boss has no fresh injury doubts, although Phil Stamp's comeback plans suffered another blow when the midfielder pulled up with a hamstring problem on Wednesday.

Gaetano Giallanza is back in light training but is not expected to return to action until the new year.

Teenage striker Shaun Reay is included in the Quakers squad today, while there could also be a place on the bench for recalled goalkeeper Jack Norton.