DARLINGTON supporters have a lot of unfamiliar faces to get used to, but new striker Lee Thorpe is not one of them.

Although he is one of a raft of players brought to the club this summer, he is certainly no stranger to Quakers, having been a regular opponent over the last decade.

A bruising and bustling targetman, the 33-year-old has spent most of his career in the bottom division and, as Darlington have been there since 1992, he has crossed Quakers’ path on 19 occasions.

The first meeting saw him score twice for Lincoln City, in October 1997.

Now Thorpe is hoping to enjoy some good times with Quakers as the forward has mainly painful memories of meetings with the club he has made his 12th different employers.

He, infamously, broke his arm in three places on the team bus while arm-wrestling a Rochdale team-mate en route to The Northern Echo Darlington Arena for the playoff semi-final tie.

That encounter, in May 2008, led to a night in Darlington Memorial Hospital, as did an injury sustained in the final match of the 1999-2000 season.

“It’s twice now I’ve been in that Darlington hospital overnight!” said the Wolverhampton- born forward.

“There was the time when I broke my wrist and the first time was with Lincoln.

“I think it was the last game of the season at Feethams and I got an injury in the last ten minutes.

“I pulled my groin away from the bone.

I had to stay overnight so I’ve not got very fond memories of playing against Darlington!

“But I’ve always enjoyed playing at Darlington’s ground because it’s a great stadium with great facilities.”

Although Thorpe will be looking for his first Quakers goal at home to Bury today, he has scored before at The Northern Echo Darlington Arena. In the second ever game at the stadium, in 2003, he put Leyton Orient ahead during a match that saw Quakers fight back to win with goals from Matt Clarke and Chris Hughes.

Thorpe could have given Darlington the lead in Monday’s defeat to Leeds, a performance much-improved on the weekend’s defeat at Aldershot Town.

The striker headed off target, then he misdirected a pass to Jamie Chandler, who was free in the penalty area.

“I should probably have got more of my head on the chance,” he admitted. “And I should have got a bit more quality on the ball when I passed to Jamie. I chose the right pass but the quality wasn’t there.

“The result was a bit of a shame because I thought we deserved something from the game because we put in a good performance.

“I was 100 per cent better than Saturday, when I was rubbish. After Saturday’s performance it was nice to be able to feel that I contributed something to the team.

“I was very disappointed with myself at Aldershot. The gaffer made it clear on Monday what he wanted from me so I gained quite a bit of satisfaction from the game.

“I know can do better. When I don’t play well I beat myself up about it, I’m the type that takes it badly when things aren’t going well. But at the same time, after a performance like Saturday’s, I always have it in me to make amends.”

With on-loan striker David Dowson sure to be selected today, Thorpe is competing with Dean Windass for a starting role.

But Thorpe is undaunted by taking on a challenge during the twilight years of his career.

He said: “I came up here in the summer to see the gaffer and he made it clear that he wanted me and I more or less made the decision I was going to come here quite early in the summer.

“I’m coming to the end of my career, hopefully I’ve still got a little bit left, but coming to Darlington something that felt like a challenge that appealed to me.

“Everybody is pulling in the right direction, even though we have not been together as a squad very long. It’s a great atmosphere in the dressing room.

“The manager and Deano have brought in the players that they wanted and you find a lot of teams do well when coming out of adversity.

“When everybody has to pull together you end up with quite a close-knit group and something good can come out of it.”