MICHAEL LIDDLE stands out as being one of Darlington’s best performers this season, though the player himself is dismissive of such accolades and feels he has more to offer.

The left-back has a couple of spells on the sidelines due to injury, restricting him to 18 league starts.

A hamstring strain meant he missed five fixtures across January and February, but he is back in Alun Armstrong’s first XI now and looking for a strong finish to the campaign.

“It’s been hit and miss,” said the straight-talking defender, who arrived at Darlington in the summer from Blyth Spartans.

“I like to think of myself as a consistent performer, solid most games and the last couple of seasons I’ve hardly missed any games at all.

“But this season every time I seem to be getting into a rhythm again I’ve had a niggle.

“I didn’t feel sharp in pre-season, got it going but then got a knee injury. Came back, I felt I got going again but then got a groin injury, came back and then got a hamstring injury.

“I’m back now and trying to get back to that real sharpness so that I can put good performances in week in, week out, but we’re running out of games.”

Darlington are tenth and have 11 league fixtures to go, time yet to haul themselves into play-off contention.

This weekend they travel to AFC Telford, who are 14th, and Liddle added: “The target for the team has got to be stay unbeaten for the rest of the season, win our home games, and there’s no reason why we can’t. Over Christmas we played some of the best teams and beat York and Spennymoor Town, so we’ve got nothing to worry about.

“There’s nothing there to scare us. There’ve been games when we’ve not played well and over the season that has been our downfall, we’ve had games where if we’ve not been at it then we’ve really not been at it.

“But those games are untypical of the team because when we’re good we’re really good.”