Darlington skipper Kevin Burgess says that Quakers are firmly in the mood to start putting pressure on the two teams above them.

Quakers missed a chance to go second on Tuesday night when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Ashton United, but they still gained a point on leaders Blyth who were beaten 3-2 at home by Frickley. The Northumbrians are ten points ahead of Quakers having played four games more.

Kev, who missed the reverse game against Stourbridge back in September because of injury, said; “We need to start putting big pressure on Blyth, and to do that we must win at Stourbridge on Saturday.

“The draw against Ashton the other night felt like a defeat. After the game we were deflated, but after we spoke about the game on Wednesday night at training, we were all optimistic again, and now we’re looking forward to another run of wins.

“Ashton were a good team, and I thought both teams cancelled each other out. They were two good teams with two good defences. It was unusual for us, because we couldn’t really get a pattern going in our play.”

Nevertheless, Quakers are still unbeaten in the calendar year and unbeaten in the last ten games, and Kev said; “There are going to be more slip ups between now and the end of the season. Ashton have got to play Salford yet for example, while the clubs near the bottom will be fighting hard to avoid the drop – I know that from my experience with Whitby that they’ll be scrapping harder.

“But our approach is, that we’ll be taking these last few weeks one game at a time.”