Whitby Town 1 Darlington 6

Darlington hope to make striker Ryan Bowman their sixth summer signing after the former Carlisle United forward netted two more goals on Saturday.

He bagged a brace early in the second half of a 6-1 win at Whitby Town, during which James Walshaw continued his scoring spree with a hat-trick.

Former Guiseley striker Walshaw, 27, has found the net six times in his last four friendly appearances, while Bowman has struck four times.

At the Turnbull Ground on Saturday, the trialist had the knack of being in the right place at the right time.

On as a half-time substitute for Walshaw, within nine minutes Bowman made it 5-0 by tapping home after John McReady had done well to pull the ball back from the byline.

Soon afterwards, Bowman made it 6-0 when he found himself in space inside the six-yard box to flick home Kris Taylor's inswinging corner at the near post.

Manager Mark Cooper is to offer the 19-year-old a contract at The Northern Echo Arena.

"We're going to try to do something with him," said Cooper, who is not expecting previous target Tadhg Purcell to join on loan as the Irishman is reluctant to move from Northampton.

"Ryan's done well, scored a few goals for us, so we'll try and sort out a contract."

Should Bowman sign he would take the number of strikers on Quakers' roster up to six: Walshaw, Liam Hatch, John Campbell, Michael Smith and Tommy Wright being the others.

But easily the most eye-catching of them during pre-season has been Walshaw, who has wasted no time in creating a good impression.

He and Hatch were paired together for the first time in a two-man strikeforce on Saturday as Darlington reverted to the midfield diamond formation, having previously favoured 4-3-3 during pre-season, and they both looked likely to score from an early stage.

Inside the first ten minutes Hatch hit the bar with a header and Walshaw was just wide when he beat the keeper to the ball on the edge of the area.

For the first hour Mark Cooper's side were rampant, 4-0 ahead by the break with all the goals coming between the 15th and 31st minutes, including Walshaw's treble.

It was the perfect hat-trick: one with each foot which sandwiched a header.

The first was slid home following a precision Taylor pass, the second after Graeme Lee had flicked the ball on, and the third a penalty after Marc Bridge-Wilkinson had been fouled. Bridge-Wilkinson got on the scoresheet with a deflected free-kick, and Darlington could have reached double figures had they not made a series of substitutions in the second half.

Among the substitutes were youth-team players Jordan Nixon, David Ferguson and Tom Bott. They featured due to the number of injuries in the squad, with assistant manager Richard Dryden also named as a substitute.

Whitby's consolation goal came after Nixon dropped a cross that allowed Jake Faichney to blast into an empty net.

Faichney was a second-half replacement for former Darlington youth-team striker Jordan Marshall. He was released after three appearances, including one as a sub in the club's final game in the Football League in 2009-10 before relegation.

Darlington's dominance meant that trialist keeper Lloyd Saxton had little to do, though in a nervy beginning he dropped a routine catch and his kicking was suspect.

The former Bradford keeper will train with Quakers this week and could feature in the friendly at Newton Aycliffe tomorrow or the home match against a Sunderland XI on Wednesday.

Aaron Brown is likely to play a part against Aycliffe after recovering from a thigh strain. The left-back was due to play on Saturday, but he felt a reaction in training. John Campbell and Tommy Wright missed out because of sore groins, while Paul Arnison (thigh) and Adam Rundle (ankle) remain sidelined for a minimum of two weeks.

Whitby Town: Courtney, Lyth, Hassan, Leeson, White; Martin (Hodgson 53), McTiernan (Daines 78), Ellison (Blackford 69), Robinson, Marshall (Faichney 53), Campbell (McDermid 73).

Darlington: Saxton (Nixon 72); G Taylor, Miller, Lee, K Taylor (Ferguson 69); Chandler; McReady, Atkinson (Bott 58); Bridge-Wilkinson (P Gray 62); Hatch (M Smith 46), Walshaw (Bowman 46). Subs (not used): Wright, Dryden.

Attendance: 345