OVER the course of their remaining eight games Darlington will not have many better chances of adding a much-needed three points to their tally than in Saturday's fixture at rock-bottom Nuneaton Borough.

Relegation will soon become a certainty for the financially-challenged Warwickshire club, who have lost 24 of their 34 league games.

Quakers, however, can hardly boast of being much better.

They are 18th and during December became one of the three teams Nuneaton have beaten, a 2-1 success at Blackwell Meadows making for a humiliating afternoon for Tommy Wright and his side.

Darlington, with one win in nine games, cannot afford any complacency, and Wright said: “We will go there and respect them like we do any other club.

“They are as good as down, probably not far off being mathematically down, and you would expect us to win, but there has been a lot of games that I would’ve expected us to win and we haven’t.

“We’ve worked on a few bits in training, put a game-plan in place and will take the game to them on Saturday.

“The minute we start to think about the opposition we forget about our own gameplan and what we’re about.

“If the lads put in the effort and keep focused I don’t anticipate problems, it’s when we press the self-destruct button, that’s been the problem.”

Darlington are seven points above the drop zone, but would have been a healthier position had they not thrown away victory at Hereford a fortnight ago, managing to lose 4-2 having been 2-0 up at the break.

“We’re still in the relegation pack, we shouldn’t be in there and it’s our own fault that we are,” admitted Wright.

“We should’ve been out of sight a month or two ago, but we’ve chucked away points, so it’s our own fault that we’re in the mix.”

As last weekend’s game with Chester was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, rearranged for Wednesday, March 27, Darlington have not played for a fortnight in which time their squad has been refreshed with new signings and players returning from injury.

“Terry Galbraith had a calf problem so not playing for a couple of weeks has given him time to recover,” said Wright.

“Joe Wheatley and Romal Palmer would not have featured last week, so they’re back now. Romal has trained all week with Barnsley so he will be fine.

“Joe trained on Thursday for the first time since coming off at Telford.”

The new signings are midfielder Omar Holness, and on loan from Huddersfield Town are teenagers Ben Jackson and Kit Elliott.

Holness is an intriguing addition, a 25-year-old Jamaican international who was playing in the USA until sustaining a broken leg last year.

After his agent contacted Quakers to arrange a trial, Holness sufficiently impressed to sign a contract lasting until the end of the season.

Wright said: “He has been brought in because he has great leadership qualities, he is experienced, and he gives us something else.

“He has done great in terms of the stats in training and has backed up the reasons we were initially interested in him. He will be a good signing for us.

“If he hadn’t got injured he probably would not be playing at this level, or even in this country at all, but he is here now and it’s time for him to play some football.”

Holness is staying at the home of Darlington’s new finance director John Woolnough, and Wright added: “It is great that he has done that because without him we might not have signed Omar because of the accommodation issue.”

Jackson and Elliott take the number of loan players at Darlington to six - the other four being Jake Turner, Will Smith, Palmer and Harvey Saunders - and only five are permitted in a matchday 16.

Nuneaton have endured a difficult campaign, and earlier this month held open trials for potential new players, charging them £50 to try their luck.

It is a club much-changed since Wright was manager, leaving in October 2017 to become Quakers’ boss.

“I think just about everybody has gone since I was there,” he added. “The club secretary was coming in just as I was leaving. The bar girls will probably be the same, but that’s about it. It’s basically a different club now.”

Wright’s final match at Liberty Way was a 2-1 win over Darlington, and in the Nuneaton starting XI were four players now with Quakers: Luke Trotman, Alex Henshall, Tom Elliott and Jordan Nicholson.