A STRONG Darlington side will face Bishop Auckland this evening in their penultimate pre-season friendly, but they will be without Gary Brown as he yesterday completed a move to Shildon.

Just over a fortnight ago he asked to go on the transfer list as he was unable to commit to the travelling involved in the Evo-Stik Premier Division due to family reasons.

Last month his partner, Aimee, gave birth to their second child, so after three years as captain in which he has twice led Darlington to promotion Brown is saying a fond farewell to Quakers.

His departure means there are now only three players at the club – Leon Scott, David Dowson and Amar Purewal - who were with Darlington at the beginning of their 2012-13 Northern League season.

Brown said: “Thank you everyone at Darlington for the past three years. I’m looking forward to my new challenge at Shildon at home.”

He rejoins one of his former clubs, who have paid an undisclosed fee for a whole-hearted player, regarded as one of the Quakers’ fans’ favourites.

Summer signing Kevin Burgess will replace Brown as captain. “I think Kevin is the logical choice,” said manager Martin Gray.

Burgess revealed in Saturday's The Northern Echo that he would like to be skipper, and Gray added: “He did the job at Whitby when he was there, and he is a great leader. People might wonder why I’ve made a defender our captain, but it worked well with Gary Brown – we won two promotions with him in charge.”

Brown played right-back last season and leaves a gap to fill. Most likely candidates to replace him are Alex Kitchen and Bradley Staunch, who have been on trial and will be involved this evening as an otherwise first-choice XI plays at Heritage Park.

Only striker Nathan Cartman, who returns from a honeymoon later this week, and the injured winger Rob Youhill miss out for Darlington, plus long-term injury victim Purewal.

Youhill dislocated an elbow while playing against Harrogate RA ten days ago and is due to visit a specialist to discover when he can resume playing.

As on Saturday at Whitby, assistant manager Brian Atkinson is in charge, though he explained that team selection for each of Quakers’ friendly fixtures was agreed with Gray weeks ago.

“We’ve done alright in pre-season, we’re on the right track. We’ve made sure people have got the right amount of minutes in pre-season and we’ve kept a record of it,” said Atkinson.

Goalkeeper Mark Bell, who played in Quakers’ play-off final in May, will be one of the familiar faces Darlington will be up against this evening.

He joined Bishop Auckland at the end of last season, as have youngsters David Mitchell and Adam Cocks, though they may yet return to Darlington should they impress in the Northern League.

Adam Nicholls, Ian Ward and Andrew Johnson, all with Quakers over the past three seasons, are all now at Bishop, as is Arjun Purewal, who scored Darlington’s first goal in the Northern League in August 2012.

Kick-off is 7:30pm with admission £6 for adults, £4 for concessions, £2 for under 16s and under fives are admitted free.