Defender Gary Brown is set to return to the squad for Quakers’ away game at Blyth on Saturday.

Gary has been out because of a head injury for several weeks, but he has stepped up his training in the last fortnight, and manager Tommy Wright includes him in the squad for Saturday.

This will be Tommy’s first game in charge since he and Alan White took over last weekend after they watched from the balcony at Blackwell Meadows, as we held on for a 2-1 victory at home to Bradford Park Avenue. The win lifted us up to tenth in the league table, just two points off the final playoff place.

Our team last week: Bartlett, Marrs, Scott, Turnbull, Collins, Galbraith, Gillies, Portas (sub Wheatley 69), Syers, Cartman (sub Saunders 76), Thompson (sub Caton 83)

Subs: Burgess, Wilczynski

After winning the EvoStik League  last season Blyth have gone from strength to strength in the National North.They are currently third in the table, with nine wins and six defeats from their 15 league games so far – they have yet to draw a league game this season. They’ve lost at home to York, Harrogate Town and North Ferriby.

Dan Maguire is their top scorer with 13 league goals, with former Darlo player Dale Hopson, who moved from Whitby in the summer, with 8 to his credit.

Their manager is another former Darlo player, Alun Armstrong, and in goal is former Darlo keeper Peter Jameson, and at full back two more ex Darlo players, Ian Watson and Andrew Cartwright.

Two seasons ago the sides went head-to-head for the Evo-Stik Premier league title with ourselves coming out on top. New assistant White scored in the 2-1 win at Heritage Park before a Lee Gaskell wonder strike earned us a 1-0 win on our last trip to Croft Park. After our fantastic finish to the season, we pipped Blyth to the title in the final week, before they lost to Workington in the playoffs.

They lost 3-1 at Brackley last week, and their team was:

Jameson, Cartwright, I Watson, Reid (sub Liddle 80), Buddle, Hutchinson, Wrightson, McTiernan, Maguire (sub Rivers 33), Hopson (sub Mullen 58), Dale

Unused Subs: MacDonald, McGlade

Kick off on Saturday is 3:00pm, updates on the game will be made from the club’s Facebook, Twitter and Website. Live Commentary will be broadcast from Darlo Fans Radio at 2:50pm.