CONVINCING potential new players to relocate to the North-East can be problematic, admits Darlington manager Mark Cooper, who makes no secret of the fact he prefers coaching to negotiating.

Despite his frank admission, Cooper has been able to sign five players since he was appointed in June, taking the number of new faces in the Quakers squad since the end of last season to 11.

Cooper revealed after Monday’s 0-0 draw at Spennymoor that he hopes to bring in a striker and a right-back.

He said: “Location-wise, where we are makes things a bit more difficult but I’m enjoying the challenge of getting the right players in to this football club.

“It’s not the most enjoyable part of the job. You want to get out there and work with the team. But if you want to get the right players in you have to do it. There are plenty of players still available and it’s making sure we get the right ones.

“We’ve got a really good group but they need a little bit of help and we need the right kind of character to fit into that changing room.

“The club have been very prudent in the way they’ve shaped the squad at the end of last season and the players they brought in. I need to carry that on and add the right ones.”

Cooper wants to see an improvement on Monday’s draw when he takes squad to Gretna today for Quakers’ final friendly of the summer.

Darlington’s first game in the Blue Square Bet Premier is in seven days time, at home to Newport County, by which time the manager hopes to have eradicated any deficiencies in his team.

Performances in pre-season have been mixed, with displays such as that at Spennymoor being countered by impressive displays against Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday, when the defence earned praise.

Cooper earned a reputation when manager of Kettering for producing defensively solid teams and he says such resolute quality is no fluke, putting it down to hard graft in training.

“There’s a certain way we want to play in terms of defending and you can see that from the work they’ve done so far in the games,” he said.

“That’s the result of hours spent on the training ground in the last couple of weeks.

“The captain, Ian Miller, has said himself they’ve done loads of work on it. You can’t just send the players out and say go and play because that’s when problems start.

“We’ve worked hard on the training ground and there can be no excuses for players not knowing what they’re doing.

“That can all change with a deflection or a fluke goal, but on the whole, if you do your work properly and you get players who know what they’re doing and are organised, then you should be pretty mean defensively.”

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