Armstrong, who was hospitalised with a nasty abdominal injury from the play off final, has undergone intensive treatment, and has only recently restarted training.

He was given the go-ahead to play by a specialist on Friday, and he came on as a sub in the second half of the 3-0 defeat.

[caption id="attachment_12780" align="alignnone" width="244"] Graeme Armstrong in action at Whitby[/caption]

Assistant manager Brian Atkinson said; “The important thing was for Graeme to get some minutes under his belt. It was an encouraging game for him, and there wasn’t any reaction to his recent injury. He’ll have another outing in the coming week.”

Quakers are due to play at Bishop Auckland on Tuesday and at Spennymoor on Friday.

Quakers rested most of the first team squad, and gave outings to several triallists. There were a least six triallists on the field at any one time, but Alan White, Ian Watson, Leon Scott, Adam Nowakowski and Gary Brown were also involved.