This evening’s match at Radcliffe Borough heralds the beginning of league matches in four successive midweeks for Darlington and, Martin Gray hopes, an opportunity to climb up the table.

His team have slipped to eighth following three league matches without a win, all three being against sides in the top six including Saturday’s defeat to league leaders Salford City.

The next eight fixtures are against opposition currently in the bottom half of the table, with Radcliffe 12th while Ossett Town, who Quakers travel to on Saturday, are one place behind.

“Without being disrespectful, we’re looking at the next four or five games as an opportunity to bring some points in, starting on Tuesday,” said Gray.

“If you look at the fixtures we’ve had a tough start. Warrington and Spennymoor to begin with, we took six points, then we’ve had Droylsden and Farsley who are up there and on Saturday we were beaten 1-0 by a team that has invested massively.

“We’ve dropped points cheaply, that’s frustrating. The last minute goal against Farsley and draw at Burscough wasn’t good enough and neither was the defeat at Droylsden.

“That’s why we’re going to freshen things up.”

Gray is ploughing ahead with plans to bring in at least two players with their respective clubs contacted after Saturday’s defeat to Salford.

The manager remains coy over their positions, but a handful of players have not performed to their potential of late and that, combined a glut of injuries, has led to Gray taking action.

Left-back Terry Galbraith is highly unlikely to play this evening due to a broken toe suffered during the FA Cup replay defeat seven days ago at Blyth Spartans. An attempted fitness test before Saturday’s game had to be aborted.

Leon Scott will continue to deputise, a player that came in for praise from the manager after Saturday.

Gray said: “Leon did ever so well against a top player in Danny Webber, you can see he’s been there and done it. The kid’s quality and his goal showed that, but Leon’s performance was all about character and I wish I had a few more like him.”

Also out of action has been attacking options Amar Purewal, David Dowson and Stephen Thompson, players that have scored close to 150 goals for the club in the past three seasons.

“One of them might be back, possibly,” said Gray, whose team have scored only twice in their last five league and cup matches. “It’s very frustrating when you’re missing the amount of players that we’re missing at the moment.”

Ryan Noble will not be involved this evening after being dropped from the squad.

Radliffe have not won in four matches and lost 4-1 to Kendal Town on Saturday.

  • Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim is set to purchase a 50 per cent share in Salford City.

Lim, who withdrew a bid to buy Liverpool for £320m in 2010, has agreed a deal with the former Manchester United players and current owners of Salford Ryan Giggs, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes that will see him share ownership with them.