Darlington are looking to take advantage of home comforts when they start a run of four successive games at Blackwell Meadows against Peterborough Sports tonight.
After tonight’s National League North game, Quakers face Buxton on Saturday in the second round of the FA Trophy, then Hereford visit on November 23, followed by Scunthorpe three days later.
Quakers are looking to recover from a late 2-1 defeat at Brackley on Saturday, with manager Steve Watson encouraged despite the result.
He said: “There were loads of positives in the game on Saturday.
“We tried something different system-wise. I thought we looked solid, Brackley didn’t create a lot, but maybe though we didn’t create as much going the other way. But we still went toe-to-toe against a very good side, and I thought that after we scored, we should have gone for the jugular.”
The league is very compressed at the moment, with no club averaging more than two points per game, and consistency a rare commodity. One of the biggest shocks of the season so far was troubled Farsley winning at King’s Lynn last week, and tonight’s opponents raised eyebrows by winning at Southport at the weekend, to put them a point and two places behind Quakers.
“What this league tells you is, that there are no easy games. There’s nobody that can’t beat anybody," said Watson.
“We know that we’re capable on our day of beating anybody in the league.
“Since I’ve been here, I can count on one hand the really disappointing performances, that certainly wasn’t one at Brackley on Saturday. There are things we could have done better but there were also things that we did very well. That’s football, we’ll dust ourselves down and go again tonight.”
Quakers will be missing striker Andrew Nelson with a knee injury, while midfielders Caden Kelly and Matty Cornish will both have fitness tests. Defender Ben Hedley and midfielder Tom Platt are back in training, but won’t be figuring tonight.
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