THE stop-start nature of Darlington’s season due to postponements has had a detrimental impact on promotion hopes and it is now directly affecting the players – an alcohol ban and ice baths are among the methods Martin Gray has introduced as a way of combating the team’s fixture backlog.

Quakers face the prospect of playing in midweek for the remainder of much of the season due to the number of postponed matches they have suffered and are braced for another call-off this weekend.

A 9am pitch inspection tomorrow will determine whether their game with Matlock will go ahead, but Darlington are not optimistic so are likely to play their final 25 matches inside the last 15 weeks of the season.

As a consequence, manager Martin Gray has taken steps to prepare his players for a demanding schedule, calling in assistance from an expert in nutrition and exercise, while telling his players to ‘save their party’ until the end of the season.

“We’re doing things that we never thought we’d have to do,” said Gray, whose side are sixth, nine points off the top, having played fewer games than all but one team in the division.

“We had a workshop last night before training and brought somebody in with experience at a Premier League club, someone to try and prepare the players for the rest of the season.

“I’m bringing fresh ideas to the club so that we can prepare to play Saturday-Tuesday every week and recover in time for the next game, and I’ve put a ban on the players having alcohol between now and the end of the season.

“It’s to prevent anything that could be a disadvantage to our performances. Alcohol slows down the ability to recover and stay fit. So we’ve put that in place as of this week.

“Listen, the lads will have a glass of wine. I’ve said to the players, if anybody abuses that then they won’t play. Nobody can afford to let down the team.

“We’ve put ourselves in a great position, we’ve now got to maximise it.

“I’ve told the players they can have their party at the end of the season, don’t go out on a Saturday night and spoil it when we’ve got a big Tuesday game.”

Asked how he can be sure his players will adhere to his ban, Gray said: “I have ways of finding out. I find out everything and I make it my business to do that. If people let me down then they let the football club down.

“There’s people in the past that have been booted out of the club for those kinds of things.”

Darlington have seen their last five games postponed at Heritage Park, and have not played at the venue since October 31 when beating Mossley in the FA Trophy 69 days ago.

To put that length of time into perspective, there were 68 days between the last game of last season, which was the play-off final win over Bamber Bridge, and Quakers’ first home pre-season friendly in July versus Sunderland.

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If tomorrow’s game is postponed, focus will switch to playing at Frickley Athletic on January 16th, followed three days later by Whitby Town at home.

The players will be in for a cold sharp shock after their next Heritage Park match, Gray explained: “We’re introducing ice baths after home games.

“It’s just a case of looking at ways we can do things better. Hopefully it will all help to improve the maintenance of the players’ bodies and best ready for the next game.

“We’re also looking at things like nutrition, what to eat before games, what to eat after games, how to prepare the body on a Sunday so that the player is ready for Tuesday.

“Fluid intake we’re looking at and energy gels, it’s all about enhancing performance and avoiding fatigue.

“It’s something that I thought we should do due to the volume of games that we have. I want to maximise very available angle and prepare the players so that we give them the best chance we can.

“We’ve got Saturday-Tuesday games for ten weeks, possibly Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday once or twice potentially.

“We’re part-time, but the players work like professionals. How do we give ourselves our best chance? By looking after the body and mind.

“If one player gets two per cent extra out of it then it’ll be worthwhile.”