Darlington last night gave central defender Dean Walling a trial outing for ther reserves at Lincoln.

Walling, 31, is a former Carlisle teammate of manager Gary Bennett, who is looking for cover in the middle of a defence which is walking a disciplinary tightrope.

"I know Dean from our days together at Carlisle, and I know what he can do," said Bennett.. "He will give us strength at the back.

"We need some cover in there, because we've got Craig Liddle and Adam Reed on four bookings, and Neil Aspin is injured.

"But we haven't signed him yet, because I have to speak to our chairman."

Walling is currently at Doncaster, but hasn't been playing regularly this season and missed Tuesday's LDV Vans Trophy defeat at Hartlepool because of suspension. He signed for the Conference club for £25,000 from Lincoln two summers ago, and before that spent six years at Carlisle.

Meanwhile, Darlington have been told by the Football League that they must play their LDV Vans Trophy tie against Shrewsbury next week.

Quakers had originally re-arranged their Third Division game at Exeter on Tuesday, January 16 to enable them to stay in Devon after their game at Plymouth on Saturday - but the league have told them that the LDV Vans Trophy takes precedence and they must meet Shrewsbury at Feethams on Tuesday in a second round tie instead.

The decision hasn't gone down too well with Bennett, who said: "We wanted to play Exeter, because we are going to be down there anyway."

Quakers have decided to let the League organise a new date, but they could be landed with three away games in a row, as Exeter, who are out of the LDV Vans, are free on January 23 and January 30, just like Quakers. Darlington are at Lincoln on January 27, and York on February 3.

Meanwhile, Bennett was impressed by twin strikers David McMahon and Adam Marsh in the 4-0 win at York on Tuesday night.

McMahon scored one of the best Darlington goals so far this season, while Marsh was a handful on his full debut.

Bennett admitted: "I had a few words with David after Saturday's game and he agreed with me that we weren't seeing the best out of him. I think he responded well.

"Adam was a pest to York on Tuesday. He had pace, he was bright, and he knew what was going on around him.'