DARLINGTON are looking for revenge for one of the most embarrassing defeats in the club's history when promotion chasing Chorley come to Blackwell Meadows this afternoon.

Quakers were hammered 8-0 at Victory Park when Josh Gowling was boss back in November, but Darlington are a team transformed under Steve Watson and are looking to turn the tables this afternoon in a bid for three big points in their battle to avoid the drop.

Quakers are currently fifth bottom, level with Farsley Celtic and two ahead of fourth bottom Rushall, who have a game in hand. Farsley are at home to Southport this afternoon, while Rushall are at Alfreton.

Darlington have won their last four home games and assistant boss Terry Mitchell has backed the players to respond to last week's disappointing Rushall defeat.

He said: “If you look back at the last 10 games, we’ve had three defeats. Each time we’ve lost a game, the next performance has been really good and we’ve won.

“We’ve shown that character after setbacks before, and that’s what we’re looking to do against Chorley. We know their strengths, but we also know their weaknesses which we think we can work on.

“Rushall played well last week to beat us and you have to give them credit for that. We had too many individuals who had done well previously, but weren’t at their best on the day. We all could have done better, and that includes the staff as well. Rushall exploited that.”

The 8-0 hammering at Chorley was the club’s worst defeat since it became fan-owned, and Mitchell believes that some players who were in the team that night will have some extra motivation today.

“Nobody likes a huge defeat in any game, and you’re always determined to put that right," he said.

“Yes, that might be in the back of the players’ minds, but every game is so important. We’ve been on a fantastic run; our fate is in our hands. It’s about putting in another top performance, like the one against Scunthorpe earlier this month.

“We’ve put ourselves in a good position thanks to this run, but I still think it might go to the last week of the season. Everybody – the fans, players, staff -- has been outstanding to get us into this position, and we’ve got a big weekend ahead of us.

“We’re fifth from bottom at the moment. When Steve and I took over, we were eight points behind safety, so at that point we would have snapped your hands off for this position at Easter. We still have the confidence and the belief that we can get out of this situation.”

Quakers will be looking for their fifth straight home win, after beating Peterborough Sports, Banbury, Scunthorpe and Buxton in their last four.

Mitchell said: “If we can put in another Scunthorpe performance, which was our standout performance, then that would be great. It’s about performing to the level that the lads are good at. The players have to get back to performing really well.”

Keeper Matty Young is likely to return to the starting line up after missing the Rushall game last week because he was away on England Under 18 duty.

He was part of the England squad that won a competition in Spain, which also included Germany, Czechia and Holland. Recent signing Aidan Rutledge could also be in line for his home debut after coming off the bench last week at Rushall.

Chorley will include former Darlington striker Justin Donawa, who they have on loan from Altrincham.