DARLINGTON head into 2020 with optimism renewed, pride restored and hope for what lies ahead.

Their latest results suggest the year will at least begin better than 2019 started, when a battle with relegation loomed after being thrashed 4-0 at York City on New Year’s Day and winning only three of the first 14 fixtures.

By the end of March Tommy Wright’s poor team were 18th, but his successor Alun Armstrong has assembled a much better squad, one with more quality, strength in depth and competition for places, unreliant on masses of loan signings.

There is character too with Armstrong having fostered strong team morale, and as a consequence players want to perform for him.

“This year we’ve got that team spirit back and I think you can see that on the pitch,” says Stephen Thompson. “Everyone has each other’s back, the work-rate is there.”

It was there on Saturday too during an ugly 2-0 win at Blyth Spartans, Darlington not at their best but doing enough and it means they are now ninth with nine more points than they had at this stage last season.

They have won four league games in a row for the first time since April 2017 when Martin Gray was manager, though Armstrong offered a blunt assessment of the performance.

“The lads know that second half was nowhere near good enough. My exact words to them afterwards were ‘that was absolutely crap in the second half’, but they got the job done,” said Armstrong, after beating his relegation-threatened former club, making it a happy return to Croft Park for Quakers’ boss and the seven former Spartans in his squad.

“I thought we played in second and third gear, I really did. We had a little spell in the first 20 minutes, some of the football was great, then the lads must’ve thought it was easy.

“It went flat, but the fans never shut up, they were trying to keep the lads going, which was great.

“It wasn’t good enough all over the pitch, everything was sloppy and slow. We ended up doing last-ditch tackles. Against a better team we would’ve been punished.”

Darlington face a better team on New Years’ Day in Spennymoor Town at the Brewery Field and Armstrong’s players will need to do better if they are to repeat their Boxing Day win.

The manager made two changes with one of them, Justin Donawa, involved in the first goal and scoring the second.

He headed on Chris Elliott’s clearance, Adam Campbell then crossing to the far post where Sean Reid, one of three ex-Blyth players in the starting XI, headed home for 1-0 on 13 minutes.

In choosing not to celebrate Reid’s reaction was dignified, which is more than can be said for some of the Blyth fans who booed him and substitute Jarrett Rivers, despite both giving good service when they were with Spartans.

Early days yet but Reid has had a big impact. Darlington have won the three games he has played, offering a much-needed physical presence in the opposition half, and he was involved in the second goal too.

That came just before half-time, Reid playing a ball into Will Hatfield’s path, and he teed up Donawa to score from around 12 yards.

It was his seventh goal of the season and he has now netted in each of his last three league starts.

Between Reid and Donawa’s goals, however, man of the match Elliott had to be alert to make saves from a spirited Spartans side, Olly Scott and Kris Thackray on target while Michael Sweet headed narrowly wide.

Elliott, back in favour, had less to do in the second half despite Spartans having the better of it but did not take their chances and they missed key player Callum Roberts who was unavailable to Lee Clark due to injury.

Darlington-born Sweet saw Elliott save a header and Alex Storey made a number of timely blocks, but Quakers had a let-off when Jack Sanders hit the bar from close-range.

“The gaffer said we didn't want it enough, we weren't confident in the first half,” Sanders told Blyth’s website. “He put it down to us to show what we're about in the second half, we were the much better side and were unlucky not to get anything out of the game.

"Their keeper did the basics and he caught the ball, but in the second half he didn't really have a save to make. I should've scored from about a yard out.”

The victory was Darlington’s sixth against Blyth in eight league meetings, four years to the day since a Lee Gaskell goal gave Quakers victory at Blyth in the Northern Premier League title-winning season of 2015-16.

There is still plenty of work to do – after all, it’s not long since losing 3-0 at Leamington - but the work ethic and quality of Gray’s team is now reminiscent under Armstrong.