Darlington manager Gary Bennett is hoping to complete the signing of striker David McMahon from Newcastle United today.

Bennett has been tracking the player for at least a fortnight, and expects him to complete the move before Quakers set off for Leyton Orient this morning.

"We'll be signing him on a long- term loan until the end of the season," said Bennett. "Newcastle and the player are quite happy about it.

"He will give us a little more up front, because with the injuries we've had in the last few weeks we've been restricted to using Glenn Naylor and Kevin Kyle.

"Glenn has done tremendously well, but we can't expect him to score the goals every week.

"I've been chasing David for a while, but it's taken time to get everything sorted out."

McMahon, 19, has been playing in Newcastle's youth team, but competition for forward places is intense, and his reserve and first team opportunities have been limited.

Whether he will play tomorrow at Brisbane Road remains to be seen. "We will be adding him to the squad," is all Bennett would say.

However, he will be unable to play in the FA Cup tie at Luton on Tuesday, because he wasn't signed seven days before the first game.

"He's a different type of player to Kevin Kyle," said Bennett. "He will give me a different option up front for the games we have coming up over the next few weeks

"I've signed him for the rest of the season because we didn't want to be in a position where he might want to return to Newcastle after a month or so. We didn't want to be in the same position as we were with Thomas Butler, and possibly Kevin Kyle."

McMahon's signing doesn't affect Bennett's loan options because he is a season-long signing. Bennett can still use two players on loan, one of whom at the moment is Kyle.

Bennett still hasn't ruled out the possibility of at least one more player arriving. But he won't disclose any names.

Bradford pair Dean Saunders and former Darlington favourite Robbie Blake, as has been rumoured among the supporters, won't be coming. "We certainly can't afford their wages," said Bennett.

Public relations director Luke Raine also ruled out the possibility of keeper Andy Collett going to Derby in a £1m deal.

"That is just pure fabrication," he said. "We have had no approach regarding Andy from them."

Meanwhile, Bennett will be going to London with virtually a full squad, except for striker Jesper Hjorth, who has suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury.