Mark Ford made his long-awaited comeback from what he calls "the longest three-match ban in history" on Saturday, but he's desperate to see Craig Liddle and Barry Conlon join him in the starting 11.

The trio make up just a handful of several players who've been missing through either suspension or injury in recent months; factors which have helped push Quakers down the table and Saturday's loss saw play-off hopes further diminished.

Danny Mellanby is another first-teamer to have been sidelined while several others, Brian Atkinson, Neil Wainwright and Paul Campbell particulary, have all picked-up knocks but it is Liddle and Conlon whom Ford believes are vital to the Quakers.

"We're missing Lids and Barry Conlon," said Ford whose ban covered four weekends because of the freezing weather. "We had no physical presence up-front at all. We deserved to get beaten and I don't think you'll hear otherwise from any of the other lads either.

"As much as Danny tries, he's not a big lad and he's not going to win headers so he needs someone alongside him.

"Danny's been out for a while and he's only just getting back to fitness and when we get Liddle back, perhaps we can do something about our away record which is awful."

It's fair to say Darlington's lack of matches recently can't have worked in their favour but Ford was reluctant to hide behind this.

"They looked a bit quicker and I don't want to make excuses but that's possibly down to the fact they've been playing week in, week out," said Ford who admits Quakers' chances of reaching the play-offs aren't very healthy.

"It's been hard to train. We've had no training facilities and have had to make do with indoor gyms but it's totally different when you play a proper game compared to being in a gym.

"A lot of the lads have been out a long time, this was my first full game in a very long time - it's felt like a pre-season having not played for so long. "We needed to win today but that didn't happen so hopefully we can put a smile back on the fans' faces on Tuesday night and get back to winning ways in the League next Saturday against Southend.

"We're losing too many games. Today was a big game, it was a six-pointer.

"There's still plenty of games to go but we need to get some kind of run together like at the start of the season when we were playing with confidence."

Ford was part of a five-man midfield which was simply overran on Saturday, and alongside his teammates helped earn the squad an extra day's training yesterday morning which will have served to remind the players that a great deal is at stake tomorrow night.

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