Having agreed to stay at The Northern Echo Arena, Ben Purkiss is hoping to build on a promising first month with Darlington.

The defender this week committed to a further two months with Quakers by extending his loan from Oxford United, the club he joined from York City last year.

But he has found himself surplus to requirements at Oxford, where he did not enjoy a pre-season, and that led to an initial one-month loan with Quakers, for whom he has not missed a minute of the club's first seven matches.

Purkiss will make appearance number eight when Darlington play at Luton Town today, and the 27-year-old admitted: "What I didn't want to do is go back to Oxford if that meant not playing and losing out on everything that I'd done for the last month.

"I'm just starting to come to terms with things, getting fit, and thought I put on a reasonable performance last Saturday, which was more reflective of myself, and I feel as though I'm getting stronger, I'm just getting going.

"I wouldn't say that I've not contributed in terms of what I expect from myself, but I do expect to contribute a lot more than I have done in some of the games."

Manager Mark Cooper brought in Purkiss as cover for right-back Paul Arnison, who has since recovered from injury but is playing in midfield at the moment, and could stay there today.

Kris Taylor's place is in jeopardy following last week's defeat to Mansfield, while John McReady has a knee injury.

So Purkiss will play again today and says he has enjoyed his time in the North-East, aside from the moment he conceded a late penalty in the 1-0 defeat to Tamworth.

He said: "I made a decision to come here a week before the season. I didn't really know the lads and I'm not someone that comes to a club and is dancing around the dressing room. I'm quiet, quite reserved, and I think that is also how I play football. It would be nice to settle here.

"I think the team's got a chance. I know it was a bad result last Saturday, but they were two really good finishes and that doesn't happen every week. We were then knocking on the door for 50 minutes but nothing dropped for us.

"I've enjoyed it. It's been hard at times, it's been a lot of games over a short period, which is tough when you've come off a pre-season in which you've been training by yourself. It's a case of digging in.

"I've done a couple of things I'm not particularly proud of: Giving a penalty away against Tamworth was probably the worst moment of my whole career and I've been booked four times, which has never happened in my life!"

Continuing his spell with Quakers means Purkiss today returns to the scene of the infamous play-off game between York and Luton that was marred by on-pitch violence.

The match, in May 2010, saw York players forced into the stands as they were showered with missiles after a pitch invasion following a game which the Minstermen won 1-0.

A repeat scoreline today, against a team yet to lose this season, would be a magnificent result for Darlington, who are facing a club that have scored eight goals in their last two home matches.

They have added more firepower to their ranks in recent weeks, bringing in former Hereford striker Stuart Fleetwood and ex-Southport play-maker John-Paul Kissock.

Fleetwood has returned to the division in which he scored 28 goals for Forest Green in 2007-08, while Kissock is known to Quakers, having scored a tremendous free-kick in a 1-1 draw with Southport in April.

Cooper said: "He's a very good player. He's a flair player, he plays off the front and he's a bag of tricks, but he came off pretty early against Stockport last week, so I don't know if he will play.

"He's another one that Gary Brabin has been able to spend money on. Luton are a massive club at our level, they've signed some really good players and have some amazing attacking options, so we'll have to cope with that."

Cooper is looking for a positive reaction after last Saturday's defeat, when his side conceded twice during a poor first 20 minutes.

But he said: "We won't be making loads of changes.

"It was only the first 20 minutes that were bad, for the last 70 minutes I thought we played well, but just couldn't score."