French winger Xavier Barrau was one of the 13 players Dave Penney signed during his Darlington revolution but must wait for his chance in the first-team.

The only other new recruit not to play at least some part in Quakers' six matches so far is Scott Wiseman who has been sidelined with Achilles injury.

The right-back continued his recovery in Wednesday's reserve defeat at Lincoln City, a game in which Barrau also played but he is unlikely to face the Imps' first-team equivalent tomorrow afternoon.

Lincoln travel to the Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena to face a Quakers side almost back to full-strength.

Wiseman is on his way back, as is Clark Keltie (ankle) who also played on Wednesday, while defender Patrick Collins (knee) trained yesterday for the first time this season having been sidelined all summer.

That leaves only long-term absentee Martin Smith out of action and the players covering his absence on the left-wing, Rob Purdie and Chris Palmer, block Barrau's path to the first-team.

Barrau has not been included in the final 16 for each of Darlington's two games since he signed at the end of last month and he will not play tomorrow either as Purdie, who replaced the dropped Palmer at Rotherham United, last week, keeps his place.

Penney said: "Xavier's still not ready for the first team yet, he's still behind Chris and Rob so he's got a chance to push on and we'll see what he can do.

"He did OK on Wednesday, alright I would say.

"Players that come late into my teams, players that sign during the season, often struggle to catch up with the fitness so we're still working on that with Xavier."

Quakers' reserves lost 5-2 at Lincoln and Penney added: "We played quite well as a team and how we conceded five I'll never know.

"They scored some wonder goals and we went 3-0 down. We got back to 3-2 and looked like we were going to win but then we conceded another one.

"The youngsters did quite well, we didn't defend very well, but we passed it quite well and looked threatening going forward."

On loan defender Ian Miller did not feature as he was with parent club Ipswich Town where he trains for part of the week once a fortnight.

Mark Schwarzer has turned down Middlesbrough's offer of a one-year contract extension, but Gareth Southgate last night admitted he may be unable to offer the Australian the two-year deal he is demanding, writes SCOTT WILSon.

Schwarzer's current contract expires at the end of the season and Boro officials initiated talks over an extension earlier this summer.

In common with a number of their Premier League rivals, the Teessiders are reluctant to offer anything more than a 12-month deal to players approaching the age of 35.

Schwarzer, who turns 35at the start of next month, is demanding the security of a longer-term agreement.

But despite the Australian having spent more than a decade at the Riverside Stadium, Southgate is refusing to be rushed into tabling a two-year deal.

"We've offered Mark a contract and he knows we would like him to stay," said the Boro boss. "But he would like to stay longer than we've offered him at the moment.

"He wants to play through to the next World Cup (in 2010), so his concern is that if he signs a one-year extension and finds himself out of contract in the summer before the next tournament, it could affect his chances of being involved.

"I can totally understand where he's coming from and, as a manager, it's something I'm going to have to think about.

"Can I offer him that extra year that he wants? He's a fit lad but, when you're at the age that he is, none of us have a crystal ball to know how long players can go on for."