THREE points and night off are the incentives for Darlington when they go to AFC Telford United on Tuesday, with manager Tommy Wright wanting a repeat of Saturday’s showing.

He was pleased with most of the game against top-of-the-table Chorley, one that saw Wright ring the changes and Quakers put in an improved display, but they had victory snatched from them in the dying seconds.

It ended 1-1 after Quakers conceded late on, a consequence of a lapse in concentration and slack marking, but for the bulk of the contest Wright’s men had been the better side and taking Saturday’s form to the New Bucks Head is the aim.

It is the first of two long-haul trips this week, Hereford being the destination on Saturday, and given the travelling involved Darlington’s manager is toying with cancelling Thursday’s training session if all goes well at Telford.

“The Thursday training session might get sacrificed,” revealed Wright.

“I’ve told the lads that if they replicate on Tuesday what they gave us on Saturday then they won’t be in on Thursday.

“If we fall short then we’ll be in Thursday because something has gone wrong that needs ironing out.

“But if they serve that up again there’s no point me dragging them in again on Thursday because that was almost perfect. Almost.”

Almost, because Chorley levelled in the third minute of added time, Josh Wilson headed home and denied goalkeeper Jake Turner a clean sheet on his debut after joining on loan from Bolton Wanderers.

First impressions were favourable, the 19-year-old assured between the posts and justifying Wright’s decision to drop Jonny Maddison, one of five personnel changes the manager made at the weekend.

Explaining why he brought in Turner, Wright said: “He was one of three goalkeepers we looked to sign on loan last summer.

“We really wanted him but he was No. 3 at Bolton at the time and Phil Parkinson, their manager, didn’t want to let him go out. But he became available so we’ve brought him in.

“The loan window ends shortly, we had that in mind, plus results haven’t been great. I don’t want to dig Jonny out too much, we’ve made changes, we’ve gone back to a three at the back and thought that having a fresh voice would give everyone a lift.”

As well as Turner, also coming in for a start was Wilson Kneeshaw, the Darlington-born striker who marked the occasion by scoring just before half-time.

He exchanged passes with Stephen Thompson before scoring, though the pair were substituted late on alongside midfielder Romal Palmer.

“I was really pleased for Wilson,” said Wright. “He deserved the opportunity to play but towards the end of the game you could see he hadn’t played for a while because he started to get leggy.

“The lads who had to come off ran out of gas. Thommo got a whack early on and with the game on Tuesday in mind we had to look after him, and Romal cramped up.

“I was delighted with them three, but every player was outstanding.”

Darlington beat Telford 3-0 in September, Jordan Nicholson, Saunders and Thompson scoring, but the Shropshire club exacted revenge two months later in the FA Trophy, winning 2-0 at Blackwell.

Telford, seventh in the table, have progressed to the semi-finals of the Trophy, and take on Leyton Orient over two legs later this month.