Darlington have added firepower to their ranks with the return of Tadhg Purcell to The Northern Echo Arena.

The Irish striker has joined on a one-month loan from Northampton Town and is line to make his second Quakers debut in Saturday's home games with Hayes & Yeading.

Manager Mark Cooper wanted the 26-year-old in the summer, but Purcell turned down the opportunity to return to the North-East where he scored nine goals in 22 games for Darlington during the second half of the 2009-10 campaign.

Cooper has taken action after seeing his team fail to score in either of their past two matches, 2-0 defeats to Mansfield and Luton.

"We know scoring goals has been our problem area, which has been frustrating because we're not far away from being a very good side in this league," said Cooper, who already had Liam Hatch, John Campbell, James Walshaw and Ryan Bowman as forward options.

"Putting the ball in the back of the net has been a problem, so we identified a couple of players and Tadhg is a great acquisition for us, even if it's just in the short-term.

"He knows the club, he has a good record of scoring goals here and I think he could do really well for us.

"He could be just what we're looking for. He's an aggressive, strong boy who likes to run at defenders and he knows where the goal is.

"I watched him play for Darlington a couple of seasons ago and remember being impressed by him then so I'm looking forward to working with him and seeing what he can do for us."

In January last year Purcell was a Steve Staunton signing and went on to be one of the few highlights during an otherwise awful season when the club suffered relegation.

The Dubliner's record led to Northampton offering a two-year deal, but he missed nearly all of last season after rupturing cruciate and lateral knee ligaments while the manager who took him to Sixfields, Ian Sampson, has since been replaced by Gary Johnson.

The closest Purcell has come to first-team action this season has been two appearances as an unused substitute and Johnson has been keen for the player to regain peak fitness by going out on loan.

Cooper added: "We're aware he hasn't played a lot of first-team football at Northampton but he's played a lot of reserve team football so his fitness levels won't be far away.

"They want him to get match fit, so if he can do that with us and score a few goals for us then it works for all parties."

Cooper must decide whether or not to start on Saturday with Purcell, who has not started a senior match since August last year, while he must also choose who should replace the suspended Graeme Lee.

The centre-back serves a one-match ban and one candidate to take his spot is Greg Taylor if he can recover from injury in time.

The utility player suffered a hamstring strain in last Saturday's loss at Luton.

Meanwhile, this weekend's match will see Darlington introduce a happy hour drinks promotion that will run 1-2pm on Saturday games and 5.45-6.45pm for evening kick-offs.

Pints will be £2, all draught beers in the Corner Bar will be reduced to £2 a pint, while all stock in the Sports Bar will be £2 each (excluding Brown Ale).

The club's new acting general manager Jason Lees said: "This is one of a range of new promotions and offers we're looking to introduce to try to encourage more fans to use our superb facilities on matchdays, while also improving the matchday experience for supporters."