HAVING endured a poor run of results and accumulated some unwanted statistics of late, Darlington now have an opportunity to build some momentum on the back of last week’s much-needed win.

They overcame Gloucester City 2-0, a deserved win albeit against poor opposition, and in doing so kept a first clean sheet since August.

A total of 22 matches in all competitions had passed since Quakers’ goalkeeper – Peter Jameson for most of that period – had completed a match without picking the ball out of the net.

With strengthening the defence on his mind, manager Martin Gray has brought in left-back David Ferguson from Shildon.

Also able to play on the left of midfield, Ferguson was in Quakers’ youth team at The Northern Echo Arena and made six first-team appearances during the crisis-torn 2011-12 season.

Ferguson then joined Sunderland before moving to Blackpool, where he was captain last season, and joined Shildon last summer.

He has this season played at left-back and in midfield, scoring 13 goals in 36 games, but preventing goals has been Darlington’s problem.

A regular concession of goals contributed to fourth-placed Quakers’ failure to win seven of their previous eight matches prior to last weekend, so Nathan Cartman chose the ideal time to end a poor run of his own by recording his first strike in ten league appearances.

He came off the bench and played his way back into the starting XI with a close-range header, rounding off his triumphant appearance by teeing up Phil Turnbull to score a long-awaited first goal in Quakers colours at the 67th time of asking.

Now that those poor runs have been put to bed, Turnbull says it is time promotion-chasing Darlington put a run of good results together.

“We need to get the momentum going again like we did last year, we need to go on one of those runs – put a few wins together and you forget how to lose,” said Turnbull ahead of today’s trip to seventh-placed Stockport County.

“Once you get into a run you go into every game expecting to win. We’ve probably been a bit apprehensive because we’ve been conceding goals, but there’s no doubt we’ll get back at it because we’ve got good, experienced players.

“We need to kick on and get on a roll again. We were going through one of those periods, all teams do. We know that, with a manager like Martin Gray, we’re going to be alright.

“The gaffer said it before last Saturday’s game, we’ve not been getting cut open by teams, we’ve been making individual errors and it’s been happening across the team. Individuals make the odd mistake and when you put them all together there’s been quite a few.

“Last season I think you could count the number of mistakes we made on one hand. There was none of that on Saturday. Last Saturday was the Darlington of last season.”

Speaking about last week’s result, he added: “In my time at the club we had never gone into a game under serious pressure, but I felt we massively needed a result. You look at the changing room, everyone in there is a team of blokes. Everyone is 26, 27, 28, it’s a team of men and you know you’re going to get a reaction when you need it and we produced one.”

Ambitious Gray has his sights set on a fourth promotion. The third, achieved last season, has arguably presented the squad with their biggest jump in class yet.

Turnbull added: “It’s not like we’ve been getting hammered, we’re creating chances and we’ve been getting punished for mistakes which is going to happen when you go into the league above. If we can eradicate them we’ll be alright.

“Last year games would be all over by about 60 minutes. Every game at this level is a 90-minuter – if you go up a level, the more chances you give a team the more they will take because they have more quality.”

Turnbull will be part of a team today that will see Cartman selected ahead of Lewis Walker, the striker on loan from Derby County who made little impact on his debut seven days ago.