DARLINGTON today play at Heritage Park on a Saturday for the first time in four weeks, since when they’ve had a mixed bag of results, culminating in last weekend’s early exit from the FA Cup.

A 2-1 loss at Lancaster City, a club two divisions below, ended Darlington’s interest in the competition at the first hurdle, a bitterly disappointing outcome for all concerned with Quakers.

Martin Gray, Darlington’s manager, admitted: “It still hurts and it doesn’t get any better to deal with until the next game starts.

“It’s not what we wanted, there’s no question about that, but we can’t change it now. All we can do is stay focused on the next job, which is Saturday.”

A win today over third-bottom Stalybridge Celtic, who have lost nine of their 11 games, would ease the pain sustained at the Giant Axe, the loss to Lancaster being one of two defeats Darlington have suffered in recent weeks.

They have won three games and drawn once since last playing at Heritage Park on a Saturday (a 4-3 defeat to Alfreton).

With Josh Gillies available but Phil Turnbull and Kevin Burgess still injured, Gray is looking forward to seeing his team back on the lush surface at Bishop Auckland’s home.

“It’ll be nice to get back to Bishop’s pitch, which is great,” he said. “It allows you to get the ball down and play in the right areas and that makes a hell of a difference.

“Bishop’s pitch has got to be one of the best in the North-East, big steps have been taken there.”

Referring to Lancaster’s playing surface, Gray added: “I’m not using it as an excuse, but you have a game-plan, you’ve work on it all week, then you get there and the grass has been growing for two weeks. The local park is better than that.”

The condition of the pitch led to Gray changing his team on arrival at Lancaster, and today he will change both personnel and tactics.

The Cup match was going well for the first 15 minutes until Gary Brown was sent off. His suspension does not start until next weekend, when Darlington do not have a game, so he will miss the match at Brackley in a fortnight.

“It’s all about taking chances, do that early and you put the game to bed,” said Gray.

“We started the game last Saturday really well, dominant in every area. We needed a goal to settle us down but it didn’t come and that was the theme of the afternoon really.

“Their keeper made saves, but they were at a nice level for him. If they’d been headed downwards they would’ve been in the net. We had enough chances throughout the second half to at least draw, but once we scored I thought we’d go on to win the game.”

One bright spot last week was the performance of debutant Josh Falkingham, a midfielder who was released by Dunfermline in May.

“He had a solid debut and I’m looking forward to seeing how he does at the weekend,” said the manager.

“He wins the ball, he can pass, he’s tenacious and comes with great experience after spending a few years playing in Scotland.”

The Cup upset apart, it’s been a satisfactory start to the season for Darlington.

In fourth place with 11 games gone, the most recent league game was a 2-1 win at bottom-of-the-table Braford Park Avenue ten days ago.

While Quakers were not at their best that evening, Gray pointed out: “Five first-team starters didn’t start at Bradford – half of the team.

“It’s easy for people to forget that. Yes, the performance at Bradford wasn’t great, but you can’t play well in every game and we came away with a win.

“We didn’t play as well as we wanted to but we won 16 corners, so it can’t have been that bad.

“We were relentless, the performance wasn’t great but it’s about winning games, that’s what you’re judged on.

“If we had put a good performance in but got beaten 3-0 people would have been having a twist.”