Darlington today return to Bath City, the scene of their biggest shock of last season - but manager Mark Cooper says there is no score to settle.

At Twerton Park 13 months ago Cooper's men were leading 2-0 after 90 minutes, yet managed to snatch a draw from the teeth of victory by twice conceding in injury time.

It was a stunning collapse from a team that had managed a similar embarrassing feat only a fortnight previously. That was a 1-1 draw at Eastbourne, who had two men sent off and for most of the game did not use a recognised goalkeeper.

Cooper points out that Quakers defeated Bath in two others meetings last season, and he is hopeful of a victory today.

He said: "We did well against Bath, won two and drew one last year. It was a fantastic game down there, wasn't it!

"We were 2-0 up with seconds to play. I hope it's not as eventful as last year and we get the three points.

"It was strange. We had totally dominated the game and then inside 60 seconds we conceded two goals.

"I put it down to a freak. You could blame Curtis Main for taking a throw-in too quickly, you could blame me, you could blame the players, but I'm sure Bath were saying what a good comeback.

"So let's give them a bit of credit because they didn't give in, despite being 2-0 down."

Bath sit at the bottom of the table and have yet to win or keep a clean sheet. They have scored only five goals, al though they have drawn three matches, one of which was at home to Luton Town, despite finishing the game with nine men.

Cooper added: "I wouldn't say we've got a score to settle. I'm sure Gary Brabin could say the same thing as his team were 1-0 up against nine men and they drew 1-1. These things happen, it's how you react to them.

"We're going to try and react in the right way to what's happened to us over the last couple of weeks. We're going to try and be professional about it and get some more results.

"In an ideal world you want to get an early goal. I'm sure their manager, Adie Britton, is saying they want to get through the first 20 minutes without conceding.

"From my point of view, let's put the pressure on and see what we can get in the first 20 minutes.

"We'll be doing everything we can in training to give ourselves the maximum opportunity of getting three points."

Earning three points last weekend at home to Newport alleviated some of the focus on Cooper's position as manager after going six matches without a win.

He hopes the game will prove the beginning of a run of form that propels Quakers up the table from their current position of 16th.

He said: "It was nice go home with a smile on my face for a change after getting three points.

"Hopefully it lifted a little bit of pressure off the players and myself and we can crack on from here.

"It was a big win for me. I thrive on the must-win game and the pressure that brings. We came up with a result by using a way of playing that we knew would give us a better chance of getting a win.

"From my point of view I was pleased we won, but I was more pleased for the players because they've taken a lot of stick and they deserved three points.

"The win lightened the mood a little bit. We sent the players ten-pin bowling on Tuesday, they went out for something to eat, they had a couple of glasses of lemonade and it went well apparently. Let's hope that they stick together again on Saturday.

"Hopefully we've had our bad spell now and can go on from here for the rest of the season and get some positive results. With the group of players we've got, and maybe with the odd addition here and there, we can become strong again."

Darlington, who travelled yesterday and used Bristol City's training ground, will be without Jamie Chandler, who serves a one-match ban. So Michael Brough and Chris Atkinson fight it out for a return to action.