A WEEK after taking on the division’s top team, Darlington will face a club in limbo tomorrow.

Last Saturday they put in one of their best performances of the season when drawing 1-1 with leaders AFC Fylde, while at the weekend the opposition is AFC Telford United who are enduring difficulty both on and off the pitch.

They are 16th having lost three in a row and scored only 14 league goals, which is 31 fewer than second-top Quakers.

Boss Martin Gray is urging his players to avoid complacency at the New Bucks Head when they aim to close the four-point gap Fylde currently enjoy.

“Telford have lost their last three games and re having a tough time off the pitch, but there’s no room for complacency and that’s the message from me,” said Gray.

“We set our standards against Fylde and put in one of our strongest halves of the season against, in my opinion the best team we have played this season. They had dominated every game they had played.

“In our four and a half seasons that was our biggest test from a football point of view. It was a good a measure of where we are and there’s not getting away from the fact we came out on top but we didn’t get the points.

“We were in training on Tuesday and everybody worked extremely hard. It was good to get everyone grounded and back at it again.

“We’ve got to make sure that no complacency creeps into anyone’s game.”

Telford this week announced a fundraising drive aimed at raising £25,000 by the end of this month currently stands at just £247, although they did meet October’s £25,000 target.

The Bucks enjoyed higher than average attendances when they faced FC United and Salford City last month and are keeping their fingers crossed Darlington will bring a large contingent of fans to the New Bucks Head.

Manager Rob Smith said: “I hope they can come down in big numbers.

“We need each and every help we can. It’ll be great to have another big crowd to help us because results have not been great. The crowd can get behind us and support us, but we’ll still be underdogs going into it.

“They’re a club riding the crest of a wave after being promoted from the Evo-Stik Premier. They’re a similar model to ourselves but they just have a winning mentality at the moment.”

Having served a one-man ban last weekend, Gary Brown will return to Darlington’s starting line-up with Terry Galbraith reverting to left-back.

Jordan Watson required ten stitches due to a calf injury sustained against Fylde, so is not in contention tomorrow.