A first defeat for four months was enough for Darlington to take stock and grab an opportunity to set some goals for the remainder of the season.

While manager Martin Gray will not disclose exactly what those targets are, the obvious aim is to finish first in the promotion in the race, one which currently sees Salford City leading the way.

Their 2-0 win last weekend brought Darlington’s 16-game undefeated run to a halt, and it led to what Gray believes to have been a productive post-training get-together.

He said: “We had good training session on Wednesday and a team meeting afterwards. We sat down and discussed things within the room and a lot of good came out of it.

“The players, the staff, everybody had an input. It was a very open conversation and it was interesting listening to what the players had to say.

“It’s not just about my opinion, everybody has got to have a say about what they feel and it is important to listen to people and take what you an out of it.

“I’m not going to divulge what was said, that stays in the changing room. I’ve got a good changing room and I think it’s important to trust your players’ judgements.

“It’s back to business now and we’re desperate to get Saturday’s game on.

“I’m very confident about my players. They respond really well and one thing I wanted to discuss with them on Wednesday was our next target, what we’ve got to do next as a club.

“We talked about little goals and the players are fully behind what we’ve got to do.”

Today’s goal is to overcome Ossett Town at Heritage Park, the first of 18 remaining matches and the first opportunity to begin another sequence of good results.

“We had a great run, 16 games. It had to come to an end at some stage, we were always going to get beat eventually,” added Gray.

“But we’ve given ourselves a great chance after the run we’ve put together and we want to start again.

“We’ve got to build a run again and we’re in a fantastic position to push on. It was only the third game we’ve lost all season, so we haven’t done too badly have we.

“Salford are going to push us all the way and it’s going to be between two or three clubs. We’ve got to make sure we take maximum points from our five games in hand.

“It’s in our hands, nobody else’s. I’ve said to the players that we stick together and Saturday is a massive game.

“I know what the players are about, they’re wholehearted, we all are. We’ll stick together, but Saturday didn’t go our way. How we react is the most important thing.”

While all concerned are keen to move on from last week, the manner of his dismissal from the dug-out rankles with Gray, who could serve a touchline ban.

“For the first time in my career I was sent off for sarcasm,” he said. “That’s one to mention if I ever write a book. I clapped my hands, he took that as sarcasm so sent me off and I’ve never heard of that in my life.

“We’ll have to watch out now and see if all referees keep up the standard and send off all players for sarcasm.”

Both Alan White and Adam Mitchell, sent off last week, do not begin their suspensions until next weekend so are available today, but Amar Purewal is out with a knee injury.

Darlington have a good record against Ossett Town having beaten them in all three league meetings since the beginning of last season, scoring eight goals in the process, plus there was also a 6-1 victory in the FA Trophy. Ossett are 18th in the 22-team division and have twice won away from home.