DARLINGTON will give a run-out to a couple of trialists when they play their first pre-season friendly on Saturday  at Buxton.

Attacking midfielder Ryan Winder, formerly of Lancaster City, and right-back Harrison Scott are both with the squad which will be missing a number of first-team players.

“We’ve still six or seven away on holiday and some have work commitments, so there’s a few missing who will be back after this weekend, said manager Martin Gray, whose team returned to training this week with sessions on Monday and Thursday evening at East Durham College in Peterlee.

“We’re taking 16 or 17 down and within that are two trialists and maybe a couple of kids, so 13 or 14 first-team players.”

Among those unavailable is Liam Marrs, the right-back signed from Boston United, but former Blyth left-back Jordan Watson will play in a match arranged as part of Liam Hardy's mid-season move from Buxton.

“We’ve trained this week and both sessions went very well. They’ve come back in good shape but there’s a lot of work to do. We pride ourselves on the fitness of the squad and we need to go up another notch this year because the competition is getting better.

“Obviously we are not bothered about the result, it’s about getting some minutes under our belt, building fitness and hopefully no injuries.

“Players will build their minutes up during pre-season, starting with 45 minutes or an hour and hopefully we’ll get fitness levels up through training and games.”

Today's game is the first of six in the pre-season schedule with matches against youthful Sunderland and Newcastle United teams taking place at The Northern Echo Arena, Darlington’s first in the town since 2012.

Blackwell Meadows will not be ready for Quakers until October at the earliest, but the club hopes the two Arena matches will attract large crowds and raise vital funds.

Work on the facilities at Blackwell Meadows is yet to begin, although the necessary funding required is now in place, so until their new home is ready Quakers will continue as tenants at Bishop Auckland’s Heritage Park, where a new pitch has been laid this summer.

A Sunderland XI visits the Arena on Saturday, July 16 with Newcastle providing the opposition on Tuesday, July 19.

Before then Quakers have games at Harrogate RA on Tuesday and Billingham Synthonia on July 12.

The National League North season begins on August 6 with the fixtures being released this Wednesday.