DARLINGTON must pick themselves up from Wednesday’s deeply disappointing defeat to Salford City when they go to Alfreton for a crunch clash tomorrow.

While 2-1 losing to the leaders was hardly surprising given recent form – Quakers have lost eight of their last ten games in all competitions – the manner of defeat came in particularly painful circumstances.

Salford grabbed their winner in the 89th minute of a match that had seen Quakers’ Reece Styche spurn a chance to give Darlington the lead by botching a penalty at 0-0.

Having twice netted spot-kicks in his six goals for the club, Styche tried something different but succeeded only in tamely chipping the ball at goal, and he requested an interview after the game so that he could apologise to Darlington’s supporters.

The fans are anxious about the team’s league position, 20th and a point behind Alfreton, and Styche tried to take the positives out of Wednesday’s match.

“Saturday is a game that we need to get three points out of,” he said.

“I think the fans could see that we played really well against Salford, probably the biggest spenders in this league.

“I believe we can get out of this quite comfortably, I’m confident. We’ve recently played the top three teams budget wise and more than matched them.

“Performance-wise on Wednesday, I hope fans can see that we’re moving in the right direction and starting to compete a lot more.

“I know people see it as a loss and I will get the critics and rightly so for what I’ve done. I’ll take that on the chin. I love it when they cheer for me, equally I’ve got to take it on the chin when they cane me.

“It shouldn’t have been a loss. If I’d taken the penalty right and it goes in, Salford wouldn’t have gone 1-0 up and the whole complexion of the game would have been different.”