Liam Hatch may be in demand, but Darlington do not intend to lose the talismanic striker.

Fleetwood and Gateshead have both made their interest known since Quakers chairman Raj Singh made his cost-cutting measures clear at the beginning of the month.

Darlington have since jettisoned five players, but it is understood that Singh has drawn the line at losing Hatch who ended his scoring drought with two goals against Ebbsfleet United at the weekend.

Although still keen on losing a fringe player or two, and it is possible their may be more exits before the weekend, Quakers' hierachy are aware that losing Hatch would leave the team bereft of forward power.

That is a view that caretaker manager Craig Liddle has made clear to Singh. The interim boss said: "Liam's created a lot of interest and a lot of people thought he might have gone by now. But, for me, you need to build a team around people like him."

Hatch's two-goal blast on Saturday came against a club where he remains a cult hero having been a regular scorer in the Conference a decade ago when they were called Gravesend & Northfleet.

So his return to form at Ebbsfleet was timely having previously gone 16 matches with a goal since scoring on the opening day of the season.

He said: "First and foremost it was nice to be given chances by the team, simply to be in a position to miss was nice. To get two goals was great and I probably should have had two more.

"It was nice to get on the scoresheet, but being in a winning team was even more important and that was our aim, but scoring made it an even better day.

"I scored a few goals at Ebbsfleet back in the day, when I was younger. There was a game at the end of the season against Halifax and I scored the winner to keep us in the Conference, so I've got very fond memories of the club.

"I did well in a few games, got picked up by Barnet and went on to play in the Football League."

Despite the number of exits from the squad in recent weeks, Hatch also reported that team spirit remains high, and he added: "You've got to have team spirit and there's a buzz in there, that's what we need and as long as we stay as a unit we should be alright."

Hatch and his team-team mates are looking forward to playing at home to Tamworth on Saturday, but that will be Liddle's second game of the day as he will oversee a youth team match in the morning.

They play Hartlepool United in a league cup game at Houghall College in Durham and the 11am kick-off means he expects to leave midway through the second half in order to get to The Northern Echo Arena.