DARLINGTON start a run of three successive away games when they travel to Southport on Saturday – with Josh Gowling backing his team to handle the relegation "nerves" and pick up the points to steer Quakers to safety.

Quakers need some points from this spell to give themselves a chance of reducing the eight-point gap on fifth bottom Rushall Olympic before their next home game against Bishop’s Stortford on December 23, and Gowling says they are going to Haig Avenue with plenty of positives despite dropped points in recent home games.

Gowling was hoping to start Akwasi Asante up front on Saturday, but the cancellation of a much-needed training session on Thursday night because of the bad weather has given him second thoughts.

“He could have done with an extra training session, so we might have to think of Banbury next Saturday," admitted the head coach, who had a look at four trialists in training earlier this week.

Gowling is boosted by the availability of fit-again Ben Liddle at Southport, but defenders Jake Lawlor and Jordan Windass and striker Mitch Curry are all injured. Another striker, Andrew Nelson, is serving the last of his three-game ban.

“There’s a different mindset about the group now,” said Gowling.

“I feel as if the players are going into games believing that they can win, and I think that’s a big mental shift compared to the start of the season and when we got the players.

“We’ve been imprinting key principles on the lads and those ideas seem to have started bedding in now, and that’s come to fruition with performances.

“We’re getting into territory now where we haven’t been all season. We’re going to be a bit nervier considering the position we’re in, and that will take time to settle down. But we’re playing good football and going in the right direction.”

Quakers carelessly dropped four points in the 1-1 draws last week against Warrington and Rushall Olympic, and Gowling said: “The players have been angry about the two home matches, because possession-wise we were outstanding. We had 15 shots against Rushall for example, and only scored one goal, and the manner of the goals we conceded in the two games was not fantastic.

“Chorley’s shooting was clinical against us. Their XG (expected goals) was four, but they scored eight. They were very clinical, which is why they are high in the table. We need to be more clinical, we must have had 20 shots in two games and only scored twice, so that has to improve.

“We should have taken six points from the two home matches, instead of two. We dominated both games, and we were really pleased with the Warrington performance because they were just three points below the play offs at the time. The second half of the Rushall game was a bit similar.

“But we are picking up points now – we’ve won two, drawn two and lost two of our last six matches -- and if we carry on this trajectory then we’ll be more than safe.

“Fortunately, morale is good, and we have to keep taking the positives and keep pushing forward. If we do that, then we’ll get to where we want to go.

Quakers have won twice on their travels this season at Alfreton and Farsley.

Gowling said: “We’ve got to keep building and picking up points away from home.

“Southport have been up and down with their home results, so maybe that’s a pleasing sin for us.

“But it’s a tough place to go, they play direct football and pass well, but if we do what we can do, then we won’t worry about anybody else.”