STEVE STAUNTON will hand Nick Liversedge a chance to impress against Port Vale this evening as first choice keeper Shane Redmond is on international duty with the Republic of Ireland Under-21s.

The highly-regarded Redmond, who’s on loan with Quakers until the end of the season, is expected to start for Don Givens’ side when they face Armenia in a European Championship qualifier this evening in Dublin.

Liversedge hasn’t played a first team game since the 3-0 defeat at Crewe in January as Redmond’s impressive form has restricted him to a role on the bench. But after enduring a difficult spell Staunton believes Liversedge has rebuilt his confidence on the training ground where Redmond has proved to be a hugely positive influence on his fellow keeper.

The Darlington boss is expected to keep changes to a minimum at The Northern Echo Arena tonight, but Alan White is ready continue his central defence partnership with Ian Miller after he replaced the injured Richie Byrne midway through last Saturday’s defeat at Bradford.

The experienced pair ended the game strongly but Miller is more concerned with taking all three points rather than the quality of Quakers performance.

“We’ve got to turn those good performances into points because I’m sure the gaffer would prefer we played badly but won,” said the skipper.

“But we’re going about things the right way and we’re starting to play some better football. When we get chances to score we’ve got to start putting them away.”

Despite sitting 16 points adrift of safety with three games in hand Miller insists team spirit remains bouyant, and revealed the reasons behind the players’ recent habit of going into huddle prior to kick-off.

“I think it might have been (Gary) Dempsey’s idea. He likes to talk and hear the sound of his own voice but if anyone wants to say something then they can. We’re the squad that the gaffer has assembled and nobody is going to do us any favours, and the huddle signifies that we all need to roll our sleeves up and look after ourselves because nobody wants to be playing in the Conference next year.

“But if that ends up being the case then we’re going to stick together as a team and we’ll get through it together.

It’s not easy going home every week with no points. I’m not going to lie and say you forget about it because it’s not like that.

“As soon as we cross that white line it’s down to us 11.

The gaffer and Richo tell us what we need to know from the sidelines and at half-time, but we’re out there on our own. All the lads know that we still have that chance of getting out of it.”

DARLINGTON (probable): Liversedge; Madden, Miller, White, Giddings; Gray, Waite, Dempsey, Mulligan; Purcell, Diop.