WIN tonight for the 30th time this season and Darlington leapfrog leaders Blyth Spartans.

Even a draw would do it when Quakers host Skelmersdale – the team which stunned Blyth on Saturday.

DARLO DIARY: Tuesday's game can't come quickly enough

The Lancashire club, 14th in the table and with only four away wins to their name until the weekend, beat a Blyth team missing talismanic leading scorer Robbie Dale through injury.

They make a swift return to the North-East this evening, weather permitting, to face Quakers team with injury concerns of their own, although Darlington are optimistic Phil Turnbull and Leon Scott will be available.

Both were substituted during Saturday’s win at Grantham, Scott with a back problem and Turnbull due to a hamstring issue.

Rain is forecast all day, so Quakers’ contingency plan is to move the game back 48 hours to Thursday – Darlington are already playing on Tuesday and Thursday next week - and Skelmersdale have already agreed to Plan B.

Tonight's match is the first of three matches in eight days at home to opposition in the bottom half of the table: Skelmersdale (14th), Stamford (22nd) and then Grantham (16th) again.

A 2-0 win on Saturday against Grantham, thanks to strikes by Stephen Thompson and Liam Hardy, saw Quakers close the gap to one point with two games in hand on Blyth, who do not play until Saturday at Matlock Town, and a draw would see Darlington surpass the Spartans due to a superior goal difference.

Thompson’s goal, his ninth of the season, was his second in as many games since returning to the starting XI, and the forward is eager to continue proving he should not be dropped to the bench again.

Gray substituted Thompson at half-time a fortnight ago against Halesowen, and then named him on the bench for two games.

Thompson, a regular in the starting XI since 2012, has since returned to favour, and said: “Me and Martin spoke about things and I’ve scored two goals in two games.

“Nobody likes not playing, of course I don’t like it when I’m not playing, I want to be in the starting XI week in, week out – if we have five games in a week I’d want to play in all five. Everyone’s the same.

“When I came off the bench I wanted to prove a point and make it so that he couldn’t leave me out again.

“Martin’s got to make changes, that’s the way it is. Look at the other players, there’s lads in and out of the team won don’t deserve it, you’ve just got to make sure that when you’re on the pitch you do as much as you can.

“I did the same when I came off the bench a couple of times, and did as much as I could.”

While news of Blyth’s struggles on Saturday reached the Darlington changing room at half-time, Thompson says focus continues to be on Quakers’ own results and a desire to clinch promotion as soon as possible.

Ten points would be enough to seal top spot, and Thompson said: “One of the lads said at half-time they were losing, that spurred us on and them being beaten is a massive bonus for us, but it’s not down to them, it’s about if we win our games.

“We’ve got to make for most of it on Tuesday, of course we do. We want to get this over with as quickly as we can, we don’t want it going down to the last game of the season.

“They’ve got three games left and if they drop anymore points that would be an even bigger bonus, but we have to make sure we win every game.

“Tuesday is massive, we want to win again to be three points closer to where we want to be. We could go top, but then you’ve got to stay there.”