Darlington's pre-season friendly at Barrow, scheduled for next week, has been cancelled after the Cumbria side were responsible for hospitalising two Stenhousemuir players at the weekend.

On Saturday, the teams played just 17 minutes of a so-called pre-season friendly before the Scottish side's boss hauled his players off the pitch following a series of bad challenges.

Quakers say they do no want to risk becoming embroiled in a similar incident.

Darlington manager Tommy Taylor, currently in the Isle of Man as the team prepare for Saturday's match against Wrexham, took the decision to cancel the game so as not to risk any more injuries to his squad which has already seen Matt Clarke and Paul Campbell sustain knocks.

He said: "We saw it in the papers and we had a few reports which said the game was ever so physical.

"I'm not having that. I'm not taking my side down there and risk getting injuries because we just don't need it.

"It's hard enough in the Third Division when you're taking knocks, you don't need it happening in a friendly."

Stenhousemuir have now complained to both the Scottish and English FAs and manager, John McVeigh, said: "This was thuggery. The tackle when Des McKeown's leg was broken was the worst I have seen in 29 years in the game. I was almost crying when I saw the state his leg was in."

Barrow could not be contacted last night.

Instead of the Barrow game, which was due to take place on Tuesday, Quakers will play at Whitby Town on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Mark Ford and Mark Sheeran travelled to the Isle of Man yesterday as replacements for Clarke and Campbell, who sustained hamstring and ankle injuries respectively during Sunday's win over the host club. Although their conditions are not serious, they returned home yesterday as a precaution.

Ford and Sheeran were not originally part of the Quakers contingent which travelled to the Isle of Man. Tournament organisers pay for hotel accommodation for all the competing clubs, but that agreement caters for just 16 players from each side, which meant several of Darlington's squad had to stay at home.

Darlington have been paired with Huddersfield town in the first round of the League Cup, meaning the two sides will play each other twice in as many months.

The Terriers, managed by former Carlisle and Scarborough boss Mick Wadsworth, travel to Feethams for a friendly a week tomorrow with the one-off League Cup game being in the week commencing September 9.

Read more about the Quakers here.