Preview and stats pack for Saturday’s home game with Southport

This Saturday we host Southport in our first game of the Bank Holiday weekend looking to make it five home wins on the bounce.

We’ve had a great run of home form, beating Blyth, Kidderminster, Curzon Ashton and North Ferriby, scoring 12 goals in the process.

We travel to neighbours Spennymoor Town on Monday, but first attention returns to Blackwell Meadows.

Last weekend we drew 0-0 at struggling Telford, and after the midweek results we are 11^th in the table, one place above Southport. Going into the weekend’s matches we are five points off the last playoff spot and nine off the bottom three.

The draw at Telford meant we are now five games unbeaten and have kept four clean sheets in a row. We have lost just once in the last eleven matches, at Brackley.

Southport’s season has had a lot of similarities to ours, they started off well, before going on a long run without a win. However, former England striker Kevin Davies has taken over as manager and has turned the sides fortunes around. From the start of February, they went on a run with eight wins in ten games. It has steered them away from relegation contenders to playoff outsiders. They have lost their last two matches against Alfreton and York, but now sit 12^th in the table, level on points with ourselves and only behind us on goal difference.

The meeting earlier in the season back in September saw us lose 2-0.

You can watch the highlights here: http://darlingtonfc.co.uk/southport-2-0-darlington-vanarama-national-league-north-201718/

Kick off on Saturday is 3 pm, updates on the game will be made from the club’s Facebook, Twitter and Website. Live Commentary will be broadcast from Darlo Fans Radio from about 2.45pm

Team news:

Phil Turnbull is unavailable, he’s at a wedding

Reece Styche and David Syers will both have fitness tests

Dom Collins and Tom Portas are both close to full fitness.

Statistics:

Quakers last five matches:

24^th March Telford (away) drew 0-0

Pears, Trotman, Heaton, Galbraith, O'Hanlon; Gillies, Turnbull, Wheatley, Thompson; Styche (sub Saunders 46), Caton (sub Scott 65)

Subs: Bancroft, Glover, Vaulks, 

17^th March North Ferriby (home) won 6-0 Gillies 2, Thompson 2, Syers, Styche

Darlington:  Pears , Trotman, Heaton, Galbraith, O’Hanlon; Turnbull, Gillies, Wheatley; Thompson (sub Caton 64); Styche (sub Mills 64), Syers (sub Glover 57),

Subs: Bancroft, Vaulks

13^th March Tamworth (away) drew 0-0

Pears, Trotman, O’Hanlon, Turnbull, Vaulks, Galbraith, Mills (sub Caton 70), Syers, Styche, Gillies, Thompson.

Subs: Glover, Bancroft, Brown, Saunders

10^th March Curzon Ashton (home) won 1-0 Syers

Darlington: Pears, Trotman, O'Hanlon, Turnbull, Heaton, Galbraith, Caton (sub Gillies 46), Glover (sub Mills 75), Styche, Syers, Thompson (sub Scott 90+2)

Subs Bancroft, Vaulks,

24^th February Kidderminster (home) won 2-1 Heaton, Thompson

Pears, Trotman, Heaton, Vaulks, Galbraith, Turnbull, Wheatley (sub Scott 69), Saunders (sub Gillies 69), Syers, Thompson, Styche

Subs:  Bancroft, Glover, Mills 

Leading scorer:  Reece Styche 10 (inc 2 in Trophy) Stephen Thompson 10

Current league position:  11th

Position in form table of last six games:  6th

Home  form:  played 18, won 9, drawn 4, lost 5, goals scored 34, conceded 20   points 31 out of 47

Best home winning margin: 6-0 v North Ferriby

Southport

Last five matches:

March 27^th York City (away)  lost 2-3 Gilchrist, Osborne

Worsnop, Richards, Howson, Marx, Whittle, Smith (Dawson 46), Osborne, Lynch, Hannah, Gilchrist, Charles.

Subs not used: Halstead, Fagan, Doyle, Priestley.

March 24^th Alfreton (home) lost 1-3  Gilchrist

Worsnop, Marx, Howson, Priestley, Richards, Lynch, Osborne, Whittle (Hannah 46), Charles, Gilchrist, Sampson (Cockerline 46).

Subs not used: Halstead, Dawson, Smith.

March 13^th Telford (home) won 3-0 Osborne, Charles, Sampson

Worsnop, Richards, Howson, Priestley, Kelly, Smith, Lynch, Charles (Dawson 79), Osborne (Doyle 90), Gilchrist, Sampson (Cockerline 85).

Subs not used: Halstead, Fagan.

March 10^th Tamworth (home) won 3-0 Gilchrist, Charles, Priestley

Worsnop, Richards, Howson, Priestley, Kelly, Morgan (Doyle 67), Lynch, Charles, Osborne, Gilchrist (Dawson 53), Cockerline (Smith 59).

Subs not used: Halstead, Fagan.

February 24^th Curzon Ashton (home) won 3-1 Gilchrist, Shaw og, Osborne

Worsnop, Richards, Howson, Priestley, Kelly, Morgan, Lynch, Charles, Osborne, Gilchrist (Smith 82), Sampson .

Subs not used: Halstead McLeod, Cockerline, Dawson.

League position: 12th

Position in form table of last six games:  3rd

Away form played 17, won 5, drawn 4, lost 8 points 19 out of 47

Previous meetings:

The clubs have met on 93 previous occasions, with Quakers winning 34, Southport 42, and 17 draws.

We have met each other in five different competitions: the old Football League Third Division North, Football League Fourth Division, FA Cup, Blue Square Premier and now Vanarama National League North. The last time Quakers beat Southport was in the 2010-11 season in the Blue Square Premier, John McReady scoring in the last minute.

 Here's an interesting piece about Southport manager Kevin Davies (the former England and Bolton striker)  on the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43554905

This season:

Southport 2 (Sang, Merrie) Darlington 0

Southport: Halstead, Dugdale, C Jones, Smith, Jackson, Roberts, Jennings (sub Fletcher 65), Merrie, White, Sang, Zama (sub E Jones 60).

Subs not used: Schumacher, Kpohomouh, Boden.

Darlington: Bartlett, Collins, Burgess, Galbraith (Vaulks 56), Ferguson, Caton, Syers (sub Saunders 75), Turnbull, Gillies, Thompson (sub Portas 70), Beck.

Subs not used: Scott, Wilczynski.

Saturday’s games:

Vanarama National League North

Blyth v AFC Telford United, Darlington v Southport, Leamington v FC United of Manchester, York City v Chorley