DAVE Penney's firstchoice centre-backs may both be the wrong side of 30 but one half of Darlington's new defensive partnership says the key to success will be the valuable experience the pair have gathered during a decade in the business.

Alan White, 31, this summer, joined his hometown club where he will team up with fellow new recruit Steve Foster, 32, and the pair will form a much older rearguard than Quakers are used to.

Darlington's best patch of form last season, when they were unbeaten in 13 games, came with David Wheater, 20, and Ian Miller, 23, shoring up the back-line, with 21-year-old Evan Horwood at left-back.

Loanee Horwood has been replaced as 33-year-old Tim Ryan is now Dave Penney's first-choice left-back as it's out with the young and in with the old at the Darlington Arena.

Miller has returned for a second spell but will start behind White and Foster in the pecking order and the guile and composure that only comes with age and experience, says White, will stand Darlington in good stead.

Between them, White and Foster have played well over 800 first-team matches, with the Darlington-born former Middlesbrough defender due to smash through the 400-game landmark during the early stages of the season.

"I'm only 31, I know it's getting on a bit in football terms but I've still got a few years in me yet," said White, who finally joined Quakers in May after two previously aborted attempts earlier in his career.

"It's a good age for a centre-half. Steve is 32 and it means we've both been around a bit, we've played plenty of games and it's a good base to have in this league.

"I always think that in this league it's the team that makes the least mistakes that gets promoted because we know any team can beat any other team.

"You can get some funny results every season therefore, if you can cut out the mistakes by getting some experienced players in at the back, you'll have a chance.

"I know last year Darlington let a lot of goals in and that's something we're working on stopping."

Foster captained Scunthorpe United to the League One title last season but turned his back on Championship football to, Quakers hope, lead the club to what would be his second successive promotion.

He's been promoted under Penney twice before.

While at Doncaster Rovers Penney made Foster captain and the pair experienced a playoff final promotion from the Conference in 2003 and then a Division Three title in 2004.

Not surprisingly, Penney has made Foster captain again, with Clark Keltie handing over the skipper's armband, but White is clearly also a leader, having held the captain's position at Notts County last season.

In Foster's absence, White was captain for the friendly with Sunderland, while fellow new signing Rob Purdie was skipper at his previous club Hereford United, meaning Quakers have four players in the squad with experience of wearing the armband last season.

And White, who says he is impressed with the calibre of new signings this summer, admits both he and his central defensive partner "like to have a bit of a scream".

He said: "I like to talk and organise and so does Steve. In the squad we've got four players who were captains last season so we're going to have a lot of talkers which can only be a good thing.

"It's the old adage, there shouldn't just be one captain, there should be 11.

"You need lots of talking all over the pitch, you can't rely on one person because you need to take a bit of the burden off the senior players.

"If you look at the players that have come in, lads like Steve Foster, Pawel Abott and Rob Purdie, they could all play at a higher level and they've only come here for one reason - that's to get promotion.

"That's what I expect, I expect us to be up there and challenging and anything less than that would be a failure.

"I've played against a few of the new players over the last couple of seasons. This summer I've been with my mates and they've been saying who's this Darlo are signing?' and I'd say yes, he's a good player'.

"My mates are getting excited, they think we've brought some good lads in."

After starting his career at Boro, it has taken White, a former pupil at Haughton School, ten years to finally return to his hometown club, although it almost happened twice previously.

He was released by Boro in 1997 and went on to enjoy three years with Luton Town and four seasons at Colchester United before one-year spells with Leyton Orient, Boston United and Notts County. He ended last season on loan at Peterborough United.

Finally, White is back home and is hoping to crown his return with a fairytale ending.

He said: "I've never played for my hometown club and it's always been an ambition of mine. It's almost happened twice before and it's never quite come off. The first time, in 2000, Mr Reynolds was being a bit awkward and the second time they already had a couple of centre-halfs at the club (Shelton Martis and Matt Clarke) and David Hodgson wasn't sure what was going to happen with them.

"I couldn't afford to wait too long to see what happened so I didn't sign and went to Notts County instead. Now it has finally happened I'm really excited and to help my home team get promoted would be a dream come true."