DARLINGTON are looking to reproduce last season’s away form when they head to Oxford City this afternoon.

When Quakers pulled off their great escape from relegation last term, they won five of their last seven away league games, and it’s that sort of form they want to replicate today on their first visit to Marsh Lane for a league game.

Steve Watson's side were unlucky not to pick up a point from their opening-day home game against Kidderminster last Saturday, and now they’re up against another relegated club.

Watson believes his team will do well today, after just missing out on a deserved point against Kidderminster last week. Instead, they lost 2-1 with Will Hatfield scoring their goal from a free kick near the end.

“It’s another chance to prove ourselves toe-to-toe against a team that was in the league above last season, like Kidderminster,” said Watson. “I thought we did that for long spells last Saturday against Kidderminster. They were more clinical than us in front of goal. They had fewer chances but they were more clinical when they needed to be. We just need to get that cutting edge at the top end of the pitch, we created plenty of chances.”

Oxford have blossomed as a community club thanks to their 4G surface.

“We’ll be up against a team that plays very differently to Kidderminster last week," continued Watson. "It’s a very different playing surface, they’ve got a very good 4G. They like to play out from the back, and they’re a really good footballing side.

"We’ve got to look at ways of being effective against them, and to pick the lock. We got into some good areas last week, we’ve got to produce an end product.

“We’re not going to change our philosophy too much for one game, but we’ll have a look at the opposition. We’ll give other teams plenty of respect, but we know from the end of last season that we can win games at home and away.”

Watson is hoping to add to his squad before the game.

“We’ve only just started this new journey, we’re still bedding players in," he said. "We’re still looking at players, we might have another body through the door before the game.

“There's loads to look forward to. We did some things well last Saturday against Kidderminster, we did things that we could do better, which we’ve tried to address in training.

“We’ve looked at how Oxford play and how effective we can be against them – all the players are really looking forward to the game.”

Oxford were relegated from the National League last season, just 12 months after winning promotion from the National League South. Their history has been mainly in the Isthmian and Southern Leagues, before joining the National League North in 2012.

They have added to their squad this week by signing defender Cardo Siddik, who played seven times for Quakers last season before suffering an injury.

They have been busy signing players this week, and have brought in winger Louis Walsh and Aidan Elliott-Wheeler, who played twice for Banbury last season against Quakers. It will also be the first home game in charge for new manager Sam Cox, who was grateful for a last-minute equaliser to secure a point at Marine last Saturday