DARLINGTON’S away days continue this evening, though the fixture at Ashton United is effectively a ‘home’ game for Saturday’s hat-trick hero Lee Gaskell.

The Manchester-based striker bagged a treble in a 5-1 win at Mickleover Sports as Quakers moved up to second, three points off Blyth Spartans, who are not playing this evening.

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Their scheduled opponents Frickley Athletic are in county cup action, so Darlington will go top if they win at Ashton, their fifth away match out of six.

It represents a short trip for Gaskell. The former Ramsbottom United forward, who joined a fortnight ago, will travel to the North-East for training when work commitments allow, but he should not have any problem playing this evening and will be looking to continue from where he let off on Saturday.

His three goals inside 11 second half minutes came after Nathan Cartman and Stephen Thompson had put Quakers 2-0 ahead, and he said: “Everything clicked. We worked hard early on and that gave us time to pass the ball about, we earned the right to play which you’ve got to do at this level.

“The gaffer gave us his orders at the start and I think we executed them perfectly.

“We pressed high and that opened the game up for us to play. If you’ve got time on the ball you know you’re going to be having lots of opportunities for shots at goal.”

After only two games for Darlington Gaskell has already matched the total of goals he scored for Ramsbottom last season, but he explained: “We were in a relegation fight, we were setting up defensively, trying to nick a win or a draw and it worked because we stayed up.

“Personally, you want to be scoring goals and if you come to an attacking team that plays with wingers you’re going to get more chances at goal.”

Gaskell left the ground on Saturday with the match ball, as is customary having scored a hat-trick.

“The gaffer went on the pitch at the end and got the ball for me,” he added. “I might put it on the mantelpiece! It’s great to get off to a good start.

“Last week was disappointing [1-0 loss to Marine], it always is when you get beat, and I wanted to get a goal, but on Saturday I had chances and they went in.”

Ashton have won their last three home games without conceding a goal, but are 15th after a disappointing start. They lost in the play-offs in each of the past two seasons.

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