IN watching his side secure their fourth clean sheet of the season manager Dave Penney last night highlighted the key role captain Steve Foster has played in Darlington's impressive run.

Foster was outstanding in Saturday's 2-0 win at Rotherham United as Quakers returned to the top of the League Two table.

The 27-year-old joined Quakers during the summer, having captained Scunthorpe United to the League One title last season. The Iron conceded just 35 goals during the campaign and Foster was voted the club's player of the year.

Penney is all too aware of Foster's leadership qualities after the defender skippered Doncaster to successive promotions from the Conference to League One.

"The defenders pride themselves on keeping clean sheets," said Penney. "If you look at the goals record last year at Scunthorpe it was excellent with Steve in the side.

"He's been fantastic since he joined us and if we can keep clean sheets then we have enough quality to score goals."

Foster produced several crucial blocks to preserve Darlington's one-goal lead in the first half and Penney said: "When you look at it I don't think David (Stockdale) had any world class saves to make.

"It's always nice when your goalkeeper doesn't have a great deal to do and you have to give the defence credit for that.

"They've settled in very well together and I think that's reflected in the amount of clean sheets we've kept already."