JOE WHEATLEY has committed himself to Quakers.

The highly-rated midfielder has tonight signed a new contract, putting an end to doubts over his future at the club.

The former Middlesbrough youth team player has played a big part in Darlington’s improved form since January, and has regularly been in Tommy Wright’s team.

He was dropped recently, however, missing matches with Curzon Ashton and Tamworth, but after concluding contract successful talks with Wright, Wheatley returned to the starting XI last weekend and has now put pen to paper on a two-year deal.

“It’s a big plus for me and the club,” said Wright. “I didn’t want to go down the road I went down, but sometimes you do. Joe was getting a lot of attention, it was clearly affecting him.

“We were going through contract negotiations at the time and it wasn’t sitting well with me that we weren’t making progress and Joe wasn’t as playing as well as he was when we weren’t talking about it.

“He took a breather, he got his place back in the team on the back of a really productive talk with him last Thursday in training and with his dad on the Friday.

“We came to an agreement, he played Saturday and Joe was back at his best.

“Everyone was delighted to see him back in the starting XI and I’m delighted that he has signed.”

Wheatley joined Darlington last summer following a trial after being released by Boro, but then manager Martin Gray did not give him a start in any of the first ten matches.

He scored on his first start at home to FC United in September, and in total has made 23 appearances.