HAVING uncharacteristically leaked goals of late, Alan White has faith that Darlington’s new-look defence will soon return to the standards set in recent seasons.

Quakers’ veteran defender has been replaced at centre-back by summer signing Kevin Burgess, who is partnering Chris Hunter, while Lewis Gibbons has filled the void created by Gary Brown’s exit.

While the team are third having won four of their six games, Darlington have conceded eight times, including twice in all three away games.

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It is a statistic they hope to improve on at Halesowen on Saturday, aiming to build on Monday’s win over Blyth Spartans, though White believes time is required to build an understanding among the back-four.

“They haven’t had a load of time because Kev missed a couple of games in pre-season and it takes time,” said White, who has been used as a makeshift striker in the last two games.

“When I first came in two years ago and played alongside Chris it took a little while to get used to each other. Where’s he going to be, is he going to drop off?

“When you’re playing professionally you’re training every day. When I first signed for Darlo I was alongside Steve Foster, a good player, and even though it takes time to get a partnership going you’re training every day so by the time the season starts you’ve cracked it. Whereas here you train twice a week maximum, sometimes not even that because lads are at work.

“But they’ll do alright because Kev is a strong lad and Chris is a really good player.”

On Monday Darlington defeated the previously unbeaten Blyth 2-1 at Heritage Park, White scoring the winner after coming off the bench when Quakers were 1-0 down.

He added: “We gave a soft goal away again, like on Saturday, and it should’ve been avoided. But we reacted, changed formation, the lads kept going and I think got what we deserved in the end. Blyth will be disappointed, but we were the better team overall.”