DARLINGTON begin the second half of their season today with ambitious manager Martin Gray admitting he still wants to catch runaway league leaders Blyth Spartans.

Gray, Quakers’ manager, was at Croft Park on Tuesday for the crunch encounter between Blyth and fellow promotion hopefuls Salford City, a game that saw the Northumberland club win 2-1 and extend their lead at the top of the table.

They are now five points ahead of second-placed Workington, and 14 clear of Darlington, who are in seventh but have four games in hand on Blyth having played only 23 league fixtures.

Only fifth-bottom Marine, who Quakers travel to today, have played as few games as Gray’s team.

Asked if Spartans are now out of reach, Gray said: “Not at all. They’ve got the points on the board, but they are there to catch and that’s what we’ve got to do.

“We’ve got to give ourselves our best possible chance of catching them.

“Apart from Workington they’ve got nobody to play inside the top ten for the rest of the season.

“Having said that, there is not an easy game. Whether you go to Ramsbottom or Blyth, you are given a test and teams will be taking points off each other.

“They’ve done well, but it’s about what we do now. We’ve got to be consistent and focus on ourselves.”

Blyth’s midweek win was their second of the season over Salford, though Gray believes the Greater Manchester club let themselves down with poor finishing.

He said: “The wind spoilt the game, it was a wild night. Salford should have equalised, they missed a sitter, and they hit the bar with a free-kick. They missed two one-on-ones as well, then Blyth got a second on the break.

“Salford deserved a point at least on the chances they created, but it wasn’t a good game because of the weather.”

While Gray was at Croft Park, a Darlington representative watched Marine’s 3-0 loss at Rushall Olympic, the Merseyside club’s sixth defeat in their last seven league fixtures.

They have scored only three times during that run, the same number of goals Quakers netted seven days ago against Colwyn Bay, and Gray will select the same starting XI today.

It will be the fourth game in a row that Gray has named an unchanged side, though with so many midweek fixtures to come – Buxton at home on Tuesday being the first – there are likely to be changes soon.

“The team on Saturday will be the same that started last Saturday and we’ll work on it as we go forward,” he said.

“The players that started last Saturday deserve to keep their place this weekend, we’ll asses Tuesday night after we’ve got this weekend’s game played.

“It’s a case of the players have earned the shirt, they deserve to stay in the team on Saturday.”

He added: “We were there watching Marine in their last two games, so we’ve had plenty of information on them.

“Like all teams we play, they’ll raise their game and they will want to get a win to end the poor run.

“We go into the game very confident, but expecting another tough one.”