After maintaining a 100 per cent record in October, Darlington bid to take their winning run into November when the standard of opposition of can be expected to increase, beginning with today’s FA Trophy tie.

Darlington travel to Scarborough Athletic, who are fifth and boast the best home record in the division, while on Wednesday they face fellow promotion challengers Spenymoor Town.

Also to come this month is third-placed Northwich Victoria and top ten sides Clitheroe and Lancaster City, completing a set of fixtures in contrast to last month’s matches, all of which were against teams in the bottom half of the division.

The preliminary round tie against Radcliffe Borough a fortnight ago was one of seven matches which Darlington won last month, an achievement that saw Quakers yesterday named as the division’s Club of the Month.

Evo-Stik Northern Premier League representative Mark Ogley will make a presentation to Darlington ahead of the Doodson Sport Cup home match with Whitby Town on Wednesday, November 12.

“We knew we had to put a strong run together to keep in touch with everybody,” said manager Martin Gray. “It’s so important when you look at the quality of teams in the league, and people see us as one of those teams, that we stay among them at the top.”

In Scarborough, however, who play their home matches in nearby Bridlington, Darlington will be up against an attack-minded side that have scored at least two goals in seven of their eight home matches, of which they have won seven and lost once.

“We had them watched last week against New Mills and I’ve spoken to other managers about them, so we’ve done our homework,” said Gray.

“It’ll be another tough game for us against a team that we know will be challenging for promotion at the end of the season.

“They’re a very attack-minded team so we’ll have to be as solid at the back as we have been over the past few games.”

Darlington’s defence has conceded only nine goals in 15 league fixtures and none at all in the last four matches, with new left-back Ian Watson slotting in seamlessly since arriving from Blyth Spartans.

“We’ve got a bit of everything in there,” explained Gray. “There’s the experience of Alan White, he’s pace alongside him and we’ve got players in the back four with a defensive mentality.

“Ian Watson has come in and he likes to get forward, but his defensive ability is as good as his attacking ability.

“He’s been excellent and slotted in straight away. You don’t always have that when you bring new players in, but we haven’t had to play the game for him, he’s just got on with it because he knows how to play the game, so we’ve been delighted with him.

“He’s a good type, a good character that gets on with all the lads really well. He knew a few of the lads anyway before he joined. He’s made us stronger.

“You’d love to be able to sign more players like him. We have the same conversation every week, but trying to find them is the hardest thing. He wasn’t under contract at Blyth Spartans.”

With £2,700 at stake today, the match matters to Gray, but it does, though, carry less significance than Wednesday’s league game with Spennymoor Town at Heritage Park.

Gray said: “We’ll definitely make changes this weekend. There’ll be a good handful of changes to give lads some minutes on the pitch.

“It’s a good opportunity to give players a game that have not been starting recently, and we’ve also got one eye on next Wednesday. We’ve got to plan for that game being on.”

Should Spennymoor or Darlington draw today, Wednesday’s league match would be postponed to accommodate a midweek replay.