COLIN Todd will make changes as he aims to stop the rot when Darlington travel to Port Vale tomorrow.

The manager has recruited four players this week and all are likely to start at Vale Park where Quakers hope to put an end to their miserable start to the season.

For only the second time since 1950 Darlington have begun the campaign with three consecutive league defeats, losing tomorrow would equal the club record.

But Todd wants to avoid such a scenario with pacy forward Kevin Gall, defender Rikki Bains and wingers Jordan Cook and Nathan Porritt all likely to play a part.

Bains, normally a centreback, will play at right-back as he did when replacing Paul Arnison during Tuesday’s 1- 0 defeat to Crewe Alexandra.

Arnison limped off with hamstring strain at halftime, during a game in which he was made in captain in the absence of Steve Foster who Todd left out.

The manager says Foster is available tomorrow, and although pleased with Matt Plummer’s performance as the captain’s replacement, Todd believes the 20-year-old still has much to learn.

“The boy Plummer came in to replace the skipper and did well,” said Todd. “But he’s got to keep concentrating all the time. He has lapses of concentration where he switches off and we have to make sure that we keep him ‘at it’ all the time.

“He’s got to get more aggression into his game and he does have a habit of losing concentration. There was once in the first half on Tuesday when he should have cleared the ball but he let the keeper come for it. He should have cleared the ball quicker.

“But it’s good to have competition and I think Plummer’s going to come on leaps and bounds.”

Due to an ankle operation Foster missed almost all of pre-season and did not feature in any friendlies.

Todd added: “I just felt the skipper needed a rest because he had played three games in a short space of time.”

Coventry-born Bains joined on Monday having trained with Quakers since pre-season and Todd said: “Bains did well on Tuesday. I know he’s a centre-back but we had no other options at right-back.

“He’s got pace, he can defend but we’ve got get him more composed on the ball, that goes for a lot of players.”

Bains was last season with Macclesfield for whom he made only two appearances, one of which came against Quakers while Gall twice faced Darlington in 2008-09.

He was released by Carlisle in the summer but last season had loan spells with Lincoln and Vale, when he played against Darlington, and also had a loan with Quakers in early 2008.