Darlington tackle on-song Plymouth Argyle this afternoon but Quakers' chief Tommy Taylor isn't worried about facing the leaders, who are in a rich vein of form.

Argyle are unbeaten in 11 matches, they haven't tasted defeat at Home Park in the last nine games and haven't conceded more than one goal in a League fixture since mid-September.

In contrast, Darlington haven't picked up three points away from Feethams since August's win at Hartlepool and their last trip to League opposition ended in a 7-1 thrashing.

Despite the statistics, Taylor remains optimistic, saying: "If we play how I want us to play we'll do all right because we've been working on one or two things.

"We aren't going to change anything tactically; if the team plays as I tell them to there's no need to change anything.

"We won at Altrincham last week and we won at Kidderminster away from home.

"Just because they were in the cup doesn't mean they don't count. They're still matches away from home and it's difficult to include the Scunthorpe match because the referee was so poor and he interfered with the game and stopped it being played as a contest."

Plymouth have added former Quaker Neal Heaney to their ranks and he was due to make his debut this afternoon but has been sidelined with an injury inflicted by a teammate in training.

Argyle boss Paul Sturrock took Heaney to Dundee United last year when he was the Tannadice chief, and returned to his former club to sign the Middlesbrough-born winger last week.

Heaney, who made 43 appearances for Quakers, the last being the Wembley play-off defeat against Peterborough, has suffered an ankle knock and is unavailable for at least three weeks.

But Taylor isn't concerned that Heaney won't feature this afternoon.

"He's an excellent player but so are most of their team - they must be, otherwise they wouldn't be top of he league.

"But it doesn't matter how good they are because we've got good players too and we've started making progress since I got here."

Gary Caldwell returns to Taylor's starting line-up this afternoon and he'll partner David Brightwell at the heart of defence, but his inclusion means Dan Chillingworth will probably have to settle for a place on the bench.

Paul Heckingbottom filled-in for Caldwell at Altrincham last week, but he'll return to left-back today, so Ian Clark will resume his striking role which has seen him score twice since arriving from Hartlepool last month.

After days of negotiations, Cambridge finally allowed Chillingworth to remain on loan at Feethams for a second month, but he is highly thought of at the Abbey Stadium.

Quakers' other loanee, Caldwell, hasn't put a foot wrong since joining from Newcastle a month ago, but this afternoon's fixture is set to be his last unless an agreement can be reached with Bobby Robson, even though he's not in contention for a first-team place at St James' Park.

Striker Luke Beckett, a transfer target for Taylor, has joined First Division Stockport for £100,000 from Chesterfield.