the most famous knockout competition in club football, the FA Cup, continually produces intriguing showdowns and Darlington's second-round tie today neatly falls into that category.

Boasting an impeccable record from his first six games in charge, Quakers' manager Dave Penney today takes charge of his first FA Cup clash on home soil and, typically for this competition, it's against the club with which his playing days peaked.

Swansea City, fifth in League One, visit Darlington and it was with the Welsh club that Penney played for three years, represented as captain and scored 20 goals from midfield in just over 100 games.

He played for a further four clubs during his career, but it was while with the Swans that Penney played at Wembley and his FA Cup highlights also came with the South Wales outfit, coincidentally, against North-East opposition.

Season 1994/95 was Middlesbrough's last at Ayresome Park but Penney denied them the possibility of one last big day in the prestigious cup competition with a long-range winner that earned a shock 2-1 replay win. The reward was a game at Newcastle United in the fourth round that ended in defeat.

But by the end of the 96/97 season, and despite scoring 13 goals from midfield and playing an instrumental role in leading the Swans to a Wembley play-off final versus Northampton, Penney's relationship with Swansea had turned sour.

He explained: "I was club captain and I'd been top scorer but they wanted me to take a 20 per cent pay cut. Obviously, I wasn't having any of that.

"I went to Cardiff, which didn't make me very popular with the fans from either club but they were the only team that offered me anything and I did OK there.

"I had probably played my best football at Swansea. I went there when I was 30 and had just passed my coaching qualifications so suddenly I knew the game. I was a bit more mature and it was probably my level, if I'm honest.

"I was probably fitter at 30 than I was at 20 because when I was younger I wasn't used to full-time training. It took my body a few years to get used to that."

After leaving the Vetch, Penney faced his former club on five occasions while manager of Doncaster Rovers, losing just once thanks to two late strikes from star striker Lee Trundle in a game earlier this season.

That came in one of Penney's six matches before quitting Belle Vue and today he meets the Swans again as Quakers aim for what would be a magnificent seventh successive win.

At Doncaster, Penney famously enjoyed League Cup wins over Manchester City and Aston Villa and today attempts to transfer that cup luck to a more prestigious knockout competition by leading Darlington into round three for the first time since 2002/03.

"I know a lot about Swansea because we played them at Doncaster a few times over the last couple of years and did quite well," said Penney, who is in line for the League Two manager-of-the-month award.

"We showed at Doncaster last year that anything can happen on the day but Swansea are a good side and they don't lose that often, so it is going to be difficult.

"They have a strong squad and Lee Trundle is their star player, he can score goals from nothing.

"Sometimes he's having a quiet match but then he can pop up with a bit of magic and score a goal or set something up for a team-mate.

"You end up finding your level of football and I know he's had chances to move on but he's godlike down there."

Darlington's sixth win came on Tuesday in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy against Mansfield Town with a line-up that that included some changes, most of which will be reversed today.

Quakers' manager believes the personnel changes contributed to the stuttering performance, but Darlington were still able to produce a victory to make it six wins out of six games for Penney.

He said: "I certainly didn't expect to get six out of six, especially as we'd won one in nine previously.

"On Saturday we've got to start brightly, get our momentum going straightaway, get Swansea on the back foot and when we get a chance we've got to make sure we take it."