DARLINGTON play the first of three home game games in eight days this evening, though manager Martin Gray says he is not looking any further than Buxton’s visit to Heritage Park.

The sequence gives Quakers an opportunity to close the gap on some of the teams above them, before travelling to Salford City on February 13.

Darlington are at home to Skelmersdale on Saturday and then Matlock Town in seven days’ time, but first up is 12th–placed Buxton, a team who Darlington lost 2-0 to the opening day of the season.

Avenging that result would see them move up two places to fourth, and extend their unbeaten run to six games.

The current run, featuring four wins and a draw, is the longest Darlington have gone without a defeat this season, and having won 1-0 at Marine at the weekend Gray believes his team is improving.

He said: “It’s a case of looking at the next game now, not the next three, and it’s a really massive game.

“We played the first game of the season down there and we’re a better team now than we were then. We were still trying to find our feet with the new signings that had come in.

“I do think we’re getting better as the season goes on, we’re getting stronger and stronger.

“We’ve had a good start to the year. We won at Hyde before Christmas, we’ve had three wins and a draw since then so we’re starting to find some really good form and we’ve got to maintain that standard, that’s what it’s all about.”

Gray will consider making a couple of changes this evening.

Adam Nowakowski, Tom Portas, Graeme Armstrong and David Dowson have all been reduced to bench duty of late, but Quakers are now beginning a sequence of two games a week.

“It’s been nice from a management point of view because the team is understanding each other as players,” said Gray, who has picked the same XI for five successive games.

“The substitutes are strong too and they are ready to start. They will play their part, which is what I told them before the game on Saturday, it could be Tuesday, we will have to see.”

Meanwhile, Darlington’s allocation of just 250 tickets for the all-ticket match at Salford go on sale at Heritage Park this evening to DFC500 and Vice President season ticket holders only.

It is one ticket per person, and proof of DFC500/VP must be shown at time of purchase. The same restrictions apply when they go on sale at Quaker Retail in the Dolphin Centre tomorrow from 10am-1pm, subject to availability.

Should any tickets remain after then, they will be on sale to 2015-16 season ticket holders and DFCSG members on Friday at Quaker Retail. Again, one ticket per person.

Prices are £7, concessions £2 (60 and over) and Under-16s £1.