DARLINGTON could soon give an opportunity to their younger players to shine, says manager Tommy Wright, who gave some of them a run-out in a midweek friendly.

Quakers staged a friendly on Tuesday against Newton Aycliffe at Eastbourne Sports Complex in Darlington, the match taking place instead of the team’s usual training session.

The 80-minute match saw Jack Vaulks, Dale Milburn and Vinny Steels all given a run-out, and Wright explained: “One of the purposes of the game was to let players who have been training but not playing to show us what they can do, because it’s alright doing it in training, can you do it in a game?

“The lads did themselves no harm whatsoever.”

Vaulks, who partnered Josh Heaton in the centre of defence, was on the bench for Darlington a week ago – the FA Trophy defeat to Harrogate Town – though Wright revealed that the young defender could be sent out on loan.

Around ten clubs have been in touch with Wright lately to ask about taking the former Crook Town player for a temporary spell.

The manager said: “Vaulks had a steady game, but he wasn’t really tested as Aycliffe only had one or two shots on goal. It wasn’t a massive test, but him and Josh Heaton did what they needed to do.

“Jack needs to play, so if he is not going to be in our first team, he needs to be out on loan. It’s got to be the right club in order to give him the right test.”

Steels, a 16-year-old winger from Hartlepool, was highly coveted by Darlington’s former manager Martin Gray, and he impressed Wright in midweek.

“Vinny had a great game,” said the boss. “He’s got bags of pace, bags of trickery and it would be nice to give him an opportunity at some point so that he can show us what he can do.

“There are shirts up for grabs, there’s no question about that. The team hasn’t been picked for the Salford game yet, so we’ll see how training goes next week.”

While Darlington are without a game today, not in action until Salford visit Blackwell Meadows in a week’s time, they are also without a fixture in a fortnight’s time, but have asked the National League to arrange a match.

Several clubs in the National League North are available due to being knocked out of the Trophy.