NEW-BOY Stuart Whitehead last night suggested Darlington are about to prove they are in a false position in the Third Division.

The centre-back shone on his debut in Quakers' 1-0 win over Bristol Rovers on Saturday and he is already convinced there will soon be more points on the board.

The victory - Darlington's first success in six matches - lifted the spirits in Tommy Taylor's squad.

And now Taylor's side have widened the gap between themselves and the relegation places to five points.

But Whitehead does not believe his new club should be looking over their shoulders, instead they should be focusing on those teams in front of them.

The 26-year-old, a free signing from Carlisle United last week, said: "I've not had many days' training with them but I think they are in a false position.

"I've been very impressed with the lads in training and I can't see us having a problem. We should not be down there and I don't think we will be down there for much longer."

The former Bolton man was pitched straight into action against Rovers and immediately formed a promising partnership with skipper Craig Liddle.

Liddle - playing his first match since sustaining a leg injury at York - gave another man of the match performance at the heart of the defence.

And Whitehead revealed he is a big admirer of the ex-Middlesbrough defender.

"I know Craig from playing against him over the last four or five years in the Third Division and he is obviously a good player," he said.

"I was quite pleased with how we settled in together at the back and I'm sure we can keep that up. It was my first game for three weeks', I've been out with an ankle injury, so I don't think I was fully up to speed.

"But I got more into the game second half, got rid of some nerves and I'm happy with how things went in my first game."

Now Whitehead is hoping to continue in the same sort of form against Bury this Saturday.

"I don't know too much about Bury, only that they came down from the Second Division last season, so they should be OK," he said.

"All I'm concerned about is myself and I just want to get more games and minutes under my belt and the Bury match is another one of those."

* Jan Molby's offer to stand down as Hull manager after the Tigers' dreadful recent run of form has been rejected by the club.

Hull have won just two of their opening 12 matches and owner Adam Pearson revealed the Dane offered to step aside from the job he took on just six months ago.

However, Pearson left Molby in no doubt that time is running out.

Read more about the Quakers here.