Darlington’S game at Tamworth today is in the balance after freezing temperatures meant a pitch inspection was necessary yesterday afternoon.

A local referee gave the fixture the go-ahead after a hot air blower was used to soften parts of the The Lamb pitch most affected by Thursday night’s sub-zero temperatures.

With -2C forecast overnight, Tamworth will again be working on the pitch this morning in the hope of getting the thumbsup from match referee, Darren Bond.

A Tamworth spokesman said: “After the first inspection the officials are prepared to give the game every chance to go ahead.

“The hot air blower did its job and softened the tricky areas in front of the dugouts.

“This area is now covered and with not such a hard frost forecasted for this evening the work party will be back in at 7.30am to start the process all over again.”

Darlington manager Mark Cooper, manager of The Lambs for two-and-a-half years after being appointed in 2004, was present during yesterday’s inspection and, with his team enjoying an upturn in form, is keen for the game to go ahead.

He plans to give a start to Marc Bridge-Wilkinson who returned to the club this week, meaning Curtis Main drops to the bench.

Also in the line-up will be centre-back Adam Quinn, who was cup-tied for last Saturday’s FA Trophy win over Bath City, so teenager Dan Burn makes way.

But one player assured of his place is Aaron Brown, who has become a fixture in Darlington’s defence and recently signed an 18-month contract.

Cooper says the deal is his reward for an impressive start to his Quakers career, during which he has made the left-back slot his own.

The 30-year-old has missed only two of the 27 games played since making his debut on the second Saturday of the season.

Brown has been key to the recent improvement, regularly delivering assists from an advanced left-back position, though Cooper remembers that the player did not get off to the best of starts following his arrival at The Northern Echo Arena.

He was a free agent in the summer after finishing last season with a handful of games for Wrexham, but after missing pre-season with Darlington, his first appearances were less than convincing.

His form, however, has improved considerably, leading to the award of a new contract.

Cooper said: “He’s a good player and I don’t think there are many better leftbacks at this level than Browny. That’s why we extended his contract until the end of next season.

“I can remember, just after he’d signed, the old boys that sit behind the dug-out were shouting that I should get rid of him and that he was the worst player they’d ever seen.

“I turned around and said to them that he’d be their favourite player in weeks to come and I think he’s gone on to become our most consistent player. He likes to get forward and that’s the way we want to play.

“We want our full-backs to go forward to camp defences in.

“With the system that we’re playing now the fullbacks get forward to give us width. I hear some crazy comments from the stand saying that we’ve got no width, but in that system it’s the full-backs that give it.

“Paul Arnison keeps popping up in the box and Brown keeps creating goals, so those two are being creative players.”

Cooper has made additions to his squad during January, but left-back is not a position he is looking to strengthen.

He added: “You can often find yourselves looking round for a good left-back so, and fair play to the chairman here, we said we should tie him down to a contract now, rather than sorting something out in the summer.

“We’d been putting him on one-month deals and at any time we could have terminated that.

“But he’s really enjoyed being here, he’s stuck in and deserves this bit of security.

“The problem with not giving him a longer contract is knowing that another club could sign him almost at any time, or he could have stayed until the end of the season but then we might have lost him in the summer.

“If you’ve got a good player you should look after him and not have the hassle of scouting round for another left-back in the summer, when you’ve got no guarantee that you’ll find one as good as the one you already had.

“He’s got to kick on now, keep going and not rest on his laurels.

“Knowing him as I do, that’s what I think he’ll do.”