LIAM HARDY has left Darlington to re-join Buxton and hopes to play for them tonight.

He joined Quakers from Buxton in January of last year.

He has since scored 12 goals, nine of them this season, but has been out of favour since October and manager Martin Gray knows he must be creative if he is to raise funds in order to strengthen other areas of the squad.

Hardy cost Quakers around £14,000, which the club described at the time as "cost neutral", and they are expected to recoup a fee from Buxton, who are pushing for promotion in the Evo-Stik Premier League.

They are fourth, a position and three points ahead of Spennymoor Town, and Hardy hopes to play in this evening’s game with Ashton United.

He scored five times for Buxton – a disputed sixth was instead credited as an own goal - when back on loan at the club in January, since when he has played four games for Quakers, scoring once, and started Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Worcester City.

It was his first league start in a Quakers shirt since October 15, a point in the season by which he had scored seven goals in 14 league appearances.

His most memorable moment was his first goal for the club - a last-minute winner on March 1 last year at Heritage Park against Salford City.

Quakers recovered from 2-1 down, Leon Scott equalising, before Hardy netted in front of a packed Tin Shed to make it 3-2, and he went on to score twice more in the promotion-winning campaign including the match-clinching second in a pivotal 2-0 victory at Grantham Town on April 9.

That was the day leaders Blyth Spartans suffered a damaging defeat to lowly Skelmersdale United, which meant Darlington – who had trailed by 13 points two months previously - closed the gap to a point with two games in hand.