Darlington's destiny is their own hands.

They are almost within touching distance of securing a place in the play-offs and a fair estimate suggests they need five wins from their remaining nine games to achieve that goal.

But manager David Hodgson has set only one goal in mind for his players: hard work.

Not for him calculating the total number of points required, picking out where Quakers are more likely to pick up a victory or comparing Darlington's run-in against their rivals' fixtures.

Instead he prefers to herald the values of determination and believes success will follow as long as his players can continue where they left off last week.

He credited such qualities for winning last Saturday's match against table-topping Yeovil Town, a win which suggests Darlington are capable of a great end to the season if only they can maintain those standards.

Consistency is just what Hodgson wants from his players, who have so often failed to deliver when expected this season.

Having grown tired of Darlington's unpredictability, Hodgson has adopted that well-worn football phrase of taking it one game at a time.

An automatic promotion place is still within Darlington's grasp but, for now, Hodgson has only Grimsby in his sights.

He said: "We're going to have to work hard for the rest of the season, that's the only target.

"We've made a promise to work very hard in all of our remaining games because some of the performances, against Rochdale, Notts County and Leyton Orient for example, hurt quite a bit.

"I've watched the video of Grimsby's last two games and against Boston it was 100mph stuff, everything they do is extremely quick and sometimes erratic to be honest.

"But that was one of their derby games, so maybe you could expect it to be like that.

"But then I watched their game at Oxford and it was exactly the same, very quick, so we're going to be given a hard game.

"They're on a little bit of a roll now and they say there's always one team that comes out of the pack to reach the play-offs, so it could be them.

"But I like to think that if our work ethic is of the same standard it was against Yeovil then we should have too much class for them."

In each of the last seven seasons 70 points has been the minimum total required to finish inside the top seven and with Quakers on 57, they certainly have every chance of adding at least another two games to their schedule by reaching May's play-offs.

Despite the season approaching the final straight, nobody can predict just how and where Quakers will collect the points required. Most expected Darlington to beat the likes of Rochdale and Notts County at home but they lost both matches, while they saved their worst performance of the season for the trip to mid-table Leyton Orient three weeks ago.

With that in mind, Hodgson remains cautious. He said: "We've four home games left and if we were to win all of them then we'd be in with a good chance.

"But I don't look at the fixtures and pick out where we could win and where we might not - that's not how it works. It's the same with other teams' fixtures, it doesn't work like that.

"That happened last year but the problem is a result can happen that you weren't expecting. A team below you can beat the top team and all of a sudden you're in a different situation to what you were expecting.

"All I know is that we have to beat Grimsby because that's our next game."

With Bobby Petta ruled out for around three weeks with a hamstring injury and Clyde Wijnhard suspended, Hodgson looks sure to turn to one of his experienced reserves, Craig Russell or Craig Hignett, to play as a striker, while Neil Wainwright or Jason St Juste will play on the left.

Russell was called from the bench to replace Alun Armstrong last week while Hignett remained a spectator, so the ex-Sunderland striker is favourite to start. But when both Armstrong and Wijnhard were banned a fortnight ago Hodgson used a combination of Petta, Russell and Mark Convery in a three-pronged attack.

Having tinkered with personnel and formations all season, Hodgson says the decisions to replace Petta and Wijnhard will not be straight forward.

"There's a big squad so there's plenty of options to think about,'' he said.

"We could use Hignett or Russell but there are other options and they all have their own strengths.

"Wainwright has played up front before and he's very quick, while there's also Mark Convery to think about, so it may not be a straight swap."