Darlington’s new striker Mark Beck says that he is aiming for a play off place at least in the Vanarama National League North with Quakers.

Mark signed on the dotted line for Quakers, and he showed how big an asset he will be to the team by scoring the first goal in last Saturday’s 3-2 win over Barnsley behind closed doors. His height (he’s six feet five inches tall) saw him cause many problems for the Barnsley defence.

“Darlington is a club on the up, it’s got plenty of momentum with three promotions in four seasons,” he said. “Coming from Sunderland, I’ve been aware of what’s been going on at Darlington in recent years, and when I spoke to Martin Gray, he sold the club to me.

“I knew a few of the other lads already, and they’ve also got the same motivation as I have to do well.

“It’s a bigger club than many in the league, and I’m aiming for the play offs and above. But we know that there will be some tough games, especially this Saturday against Altrincham, who were relegated last season.”

Mark’s family lives on Wearside, so playing on the doorstep suits him after playing in the Football League for a club 300 miles away last season.

“I was released by Carlisle and I took a risk and moved to Yeovil, which is a long way from home, and for one reason or another, the move didn’t quite work out – for example, Yeovil changed their manager soon after I arrived, and the new manager didn’t fancy me.

“So halfway through the season I moved to Wrexham on loan, which meant that I wasn’t too far away from home plus I was able to play for them regularly. I enjoyed my time there, and I thought I’d done ok, but Wrexham said that they didn’t want to make the move permanent.”

He’s also the proud owner of three Scotland Under 19 international caps, even though he was born in Sunderland, and his family home is there. There’s no trace of a Scottish accent either.

“It was a great honour to play for Scotland – it was all because of my grandfather, who was born in Scotland.!”

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