We travel to Tamworth on Tuesday in high spirits following another victory on Saturday against Curzon Ashton (writes Simon Hahn). A late winner from Dave Syers earned us our fifth victory in six games, another crucial three points which moved us up to 13^th place.

We are now eight points ahead of the bottom three and six behind Spennymoor in seventh.

Tamworth were challenging for the playoffs in the first half of the season, as they did last season when they just missed out.

However, in recent months they have suffered a disastrous drop in form which sees them firmly in the relegation battle. They are one of three teams on 37 points, five behind ourselves and three ahead of danger.

During this poor run they have sacked their manager Andy Morrell, with their run coinciding with Reece Styche leaving the club to join ourselves. Our earlier meeting in November saw Tamworth win the game 1-0. Despite an encouraging performance shortly after Tommy Wright’s arrival Tamworth hit us on the break to score the only goal late on.

Styche joined after that game and in 17 games since Tamworth have only won twice. They have not won in their last nine games.

Manager Tommy Wright says that Quakers have come a long way since we last played Tamworth in the Vanarama National League.

Quakers lost 1-0 to the Staffordshire side in the league back in November in one of Tommy’s early games in charge after he took over from Martin Gray, but he says that Quakers have greatly improved since then.

“We’ve changed for the better since we last played them,” he said. “I think we’ve come a long way since we lost to them.

“We’re having a good run at the moment with five wins out of the last six matches, but that doesn’t mean to say that we’ll be taking Tamworth lightly.”

Three former Tamworth players will be returning to one of their previous clubs – Reece Styche, Greg Mills and Josh Heaton – and Tommy said; “I’m sure this is a game that Reece in particular will be looking forward to after his time here.

“He was quite happy at Tamworth and said that he would only leave to join me again, which he did when I went to Darlington.

“I’m sure Reece will be going to Tamworth with the aim of showing Tamworth what they’ve missed and looking to get back on the scoring trail."

Kick off on Tuesday is 7.45 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 at 7.30pm.

Team news:

James Caton will have a fitness test on a hamstring injury

Dom Collins is on the road to recovery, and did the warm up last Saturday.

Tom Portas is also progressing well.

Statistics:

Quakers last five matches:

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

17^th February Brackley (away) lost 0-3

Pears, Trotman, Heaton, Galbraith, O'Hanlon, Turnbull, Wheatley (sub Glover 78), Gillies, Syers, Mills, Saunders

Subs: Scott, Bancroft, G Brown, Milburn

10^th February Bradford PA (away) won 1-0 Syers

Darlington: Pears, Trotman, O’Hanlon, Turnbull, Heaton, Galbraith, Gillies (sub Brown 84), Wheatley, Styche (sub Mills 89) , Syers, Thompson

Subs: Scott, Bancroft, Saunders

3^rd February Blyth (home) won 3-0 Thompson pen, Styche, Syers

Pears, Trotman, O'Hanlon, Turnbull, Heaton, Galbraith, Caton (sub Gillies 78), Wheatley, Styche (sub Saunders 82), Syers, Thompson (sub Scott 88)

Subs: Bancroft, Brown

Leading scorer:  Reece Styche  9 (inc 2 in Trophy) Stephen Thompson 8

Current league position: 13th (eight points above relegation zone, six points below the play offs)

Position in form table of last six games:  3^rd – below Harrogate and Southport

Away form:  played 16, won 3 drawn 5 lost 8, points 14 out of a total of 42 Goals scored 16, against 29

Best away winning margin 2-0 v Salford

Tamworth

Last five matches

10^th March Southport (away) lost 0-3

Stevens, Burns, Morley, Shaw, Jones, Lane, Knights (Taylor 63), Verma, Asante, Gray, Sharpe (Powell 55)

Subs: Kettle, Jezeph, Thomas

6^th March Salford (away) lost 1-2 Kotwica

Stevens, Burns, Sharpe, Shaw, Jones, Lane, Knights (Kotwica 76), Verma, Asante, Thomas (Taylor 62), Gray (Morley 80)

Subs: Stabana, Kettle

17^th February AFC Telford United (home) drew 2-2 Asante, Verma

Stevens, Stabana, Sharpe, Thomas (Shaw 54), Jones, Kettle, Taylor (Powell 71), Verma, Asante, Reid (Gray 54), Knights

Subs: Coulson, Kotwica

13^th February Blyth (home) lost 0-3

Stevens, Burns, Sharpe, Kettle, Jones (c.), Shaw, Powell (Reid 59), Thomas (Kotwica 63), Asante, Verma, Knights

Subs: Taylor, Stabana, Coulson

10^th February Alfreton (away) lost 1-2 Knights

Stevens, Burns, Sharpe (Reid 89), Kettle, Jones (c.), Coulson (Stabana HT), Taylor, Verma, Asatne, Shaw, Knights (Powell 79)

Subs: Lane, Kotwica

Last win v Nuneaton 2-0 on New Year’s Day - -a run of nine games without a win

League position: 18th

Position in form table of last six games:  22nd

Home form:  Played 16, won 6 drawn 4, lost 6 points 18 (out of a total of 37), goals scored 27, against 26

Best home win: 4-1 v Curzon Ashton

Connections:

Tamworth will include Aman Verma, who was part of the Darlington team that won the FA trophy in 2011. We beat Tamworth early in that run – were you in the 432 who watched that game?

Darlington include former Tamworth players Greg Mills,  Josh Heaton and Reece Styche in their squad. Styche scored ten league goals for Tamworth before his move to Darlington, and is still their top scorer

Former Darlington manager Mark Cooper was a player and a manager of Tamworth

Previous meetings:

Tamworth 2 Darlington 1 (Galbraith pen), Darlington 3 (Galbraith, Thompson, Cartman) Tamworth 2

November 18^th

Darlington 0 Tamworth 1

Darlington: Wilczynski, Trotman, Galbraith, Wheatley, Collins, Brown, Mills, Syers, Caton, Gillies (sub Saunders 78), Thompson

Subs not used: Scott, Bancroft, Portas, Heaton

Tamworth Rowley, Burns, Morley, Deeney, Jones (c.), Lane, Upton, Fox, Reid (Taylor 69), Verma, Knights (Powell 81)

Subs: Coulson, Shaw, Hayden

Here are the highlights of that game

Tuesday’s games:

Vanarama National League North

Gainsborough v Brackley, Kidderminster v York City, Southport v AFC Telford United, Stockport County v Boston, Tamworth v Darlington