Darlington boss David Hodgson is awaiting a call from his Newcastle United counterpart Graeme souness he hopes will tie up a loan deal for striker Lewis Guy.

After initial enquiries, Hodgson is awaiting confirmation from Souness that the 19-year-old can join Quakers for the remainder of the season.

Hodgson is keen to strengthen his attacking options, especially after learning strike duo Alun Armstrong and Clyde Wijnhard will miss the visit of Boston United on March 5 through suspension.

"I've made an approach for Lewis but I'm still waiting for Graeme Souness to get back to me," said Hodgson. "It has been frustrating that nothing has moved forward since last week, although we are hopeful that something might happen before the weekend."

The Football Association yesterday confirmed that Armstrong and Wijnhard will serve one-match bans after picking up their fifth cautions of the season in Tuesday night's 2-1 win over Swansea City.

Hodgson felt Wijnhard was unlucky to be booked following a spat with a Swans player, although he had less sympathy for Armstrong, who was yellow-carded for dissent.

"I'm not happy with the manner in which Alun has picked up his bookings," fumed Hodgson. "Most of them have came from arguing with the referee, which is a ridiculous way to get suspended.

"Now we're faced with the prospect of losing our two main strikers at a crucial stage of the season.

"I suppose I have to be realistic and accept that we are eventually going to pick up suspensions over a course of time, but I'm still disappointed at the way we've picked them up."

Hodgson will hold further talks with Sunderland midfielder Jonjo Dickman this afternoon. The 26-year-old will sign a permanent deal with Quakers until the end of the season, subject to reaching a financial settlement with the Wearsiders.

"I'm meeting with Jonjo on Thursday to finalise one or two details," said Hodgson. "He still has things to arrange at the Sunderland end, but we're confident he'll be with us by the end of the week."

Former Quakers favourite Matty Appleby is close to rejoining the club, although his switch from Oldham has been held up because the player is suffering from a virus.

* Swansea are refusing to comment on the future of midfielder Andy Robinson until the outcome of his court case after he was charged with a public order offence at the weekend.

The 25-year-old was arrested in Swansea city centre in the early hours of Sunday morning and was left out of the squad which lost to the Quakers