THE players on the fringes of Darlington’s current first-choice XI will not have to wait long for a recall due to the club’s demanding fixture schedule over the coming weeks.

This Saturday sees Quakers begin a period of two games every week that will last until mid-April, a spell which promises to be a testing yet inevitable task as they begin to play catch up on their promotion rivals.

They have a minimum of three games in hand on the teams above them, a consequence of having a glut of fixtures postponed since November, though when they have played manager Martin Gray has favoured the same starting XI.

The same 11 players have started each of the four matches since December 19, leaving the rest of the squad on bench duty.

“With playing Saturday-Tuesday we’ll be rotating players, we’ll have to,” said Gray, whose team head to 20th-placed Marine on Saturday.

“Players can’t play every game for the rest of the season and expect to put in real energetic performances.

“We’ve got to give them chances to recover for their next game, so this is when the squad will really come in.

“I’ve got a great squad of 16-17 players and the competition for places is great.

“You look at the bench, those lads were starting a month ago.

“Everyone has upped their game at the right time of the season.

“We’ve got a great group of players, they showed that on Saturday, and we’ve put ourselves in a great position to challenge for promotion.”

Tom Portas and Graeme Armstrong were both regulars in Gray’s starting XI earlier in the campaign but have had to make do with bench duty lately, as have Adam Nowakowki and David Dowson, while Lewis Gibbons, Quakers’ first-choice right-back until October, has joined Consett on loan.

Gray added: “The players never give us grief, they understand that we’re doing things for the right reasons and that’s the way it works. They are great to work with.

“The staff set the tone, we set high standards, and we haven’t got a bad apple in the changing room. If we do, then we get rid of them really quickly, everybody understands the mentality, the philosophy, how we play.

“Players come in, they understand it, then get on and play.

“They’re an absolutely top bunch of lads to work with.”

There were four games in the Evo-Stik Premier Division on Tuesday evening when Darlington dropped a place to seventh due to Barwell leapfrogging them, while Blyth Spartans strengthened their position at the top of table with a win against Salford City.

Blyth, a team Darlington have done the league double over this season, recorded their second win this season against Salford thanks to goals by Damen Mullen and Wilson Kneeshaw, a forward who was with Darlington briefly this season.

He grabbed the winner in front of a crowd of 1,432 at Croft Park and Blyth boss Tom Wade told the nonleaguedaily.com: “Wilson was fantastic and has been since he came in.

“He has great technique, he can beat a player either side with pace or trickery and he is a fantastic finisher.

“The biggest compliment I can pay him is that because of his performance we didn’t miss Danny Maguire and he is a massive player for us.

“We are delighted to have him and I hope we can keep hold of him.”