Darlington skipper Kevin Burgess was delighted with the way all the players bounced back in the 2-0 friendly win over Sunderland on Tuesday night.

Quakers produced their worst performance so far in the friendly build up when they lost 5-1 to Newcastle last Saturday after being 2-0 down in 12 minutes, but Kev says that Tuesday night’s performance was much better.

“It was a great performance following last Saturday,” he said.

“We took everything that Martin said after the game on board. For example, he said that we didn’t pass or use the ball well against Newcastle, but we did the opposite against Sunderland.

“We were back to how we were last season. We pressed Sunderland pretty high, we were nice and strong and we kept a clean sheet. We were determined to make sure that we didn’t concede late in the game.”

Kev said that all the players were pleased to beat the Black Cats second string, who were watched by manager Sam Allardyce.

“It was great to beat a team of professionals,” said Kev, who played at the Arena in his first spell at the club nine years ago.

“It meant something to beat them in front of our own fans, who would have gone home happy with our performance.”

Quakers’ next friendly is at Gateshead on Friday night.