WITH just under three weeks to go until the beginning of the season, Darlington manager Alun Armstrong is still building his squad and admits the situation is not ideal.

He has brought in nine players so far, five of them in the starting XI for Saturday’s friendly with Newcastle United Under-23s at Blackwell Meadows.

Tommy Taylor, Joey Hope, Lexus Beeden, Alex Purver and Junior Mondal all started the 3-1 defeat, while Lucas Martin, George Smith and Kevin Dos Santos came off the bench. Kallum Griffiths missed out due to a slight injury.

The new recruits coupled with players who remain from last season give Darlington a squad of 15, plus youngsters, and Armstrong wants further additions, but Friday saw the club overlooked by two potential new strikers.

Tyrone O’Neill chose to join Scunthorpe United, and Armstrong admitted: “It’s not ideal, you want to have your squad done by now, but that’s where we are. I’ve been speaking to players and we lost two on Friday, two strikers, with one being Tyrone.

“I’m disappointed not to get him here, but I’m delighted for the kid getting a Football League club.”

Mark Beck joined York on loan from Harrogate Town instead of returning to Darlington.

Armstrong explained: “We did try but he’s decided to go elsewhere and there’s nothing we could do about it. It was staying full-time that made the difference for him.

“We’ll keep working. I’m speaking to some centre-halves and forwards; I know what we need, I think everyone can see that. The midfield is strong but we need another midfielder, a couple of centre-halves and a couple of forwards.”

There were no trialists involved on Saturday, and of the players Armstrong is targeting he said: “They’re full-time players, and it’s a case of trying to get them to our league.

“We’ll know where we are within two weeks. They’re on trial at other clubs and by then they’ll know if they’ve been offered something. There’s a lot of trialists out there.

“I never stop speaking to agents and players, but everyone I’m speaking to is trying their hand higher up at this time which is fine.

“I’m pleased with what we’ve got, it just needs a bit of tweaking here and there.”

Armstrong was largely pleased with his team’s performance against Newcastle United Under-23s, their first friendly of note this summer.

The club have seen a number of friendly fixtures postponed due to players and staff having to isolate.

They did have a behind-closed-doors match at Sheffield United, but academy players were needed to boost numbers, such were Quakers’ Covid issues.

Saturday at Blackwell Meadows saw almost all of new-look Quakers’ summer signings given a run-out in a 3-1 defeat, Newcastle adding polish to the scoreline with two late goals.

It was the first time Darlington supporters been at Blackwell since March 2020, and Armstrong said: “The first ten minutes there were a few nerves in there because the new lads hadn’t played together before and they’d never played in front of our fans before. But after half an hour we were looking really good.

“There was a little lapse in concentration for their first goal, which you’re going to get in pre-season. But I’m really pleased with 70 minutes of the game.

“Once we got to grips with it, we had them on the backfoot for most of the first half and for some of the second half.

“We could have scored more goals, that was a frustration, but it’ll come, that was just rustiness.”

Newcastle took the lead through Tom Allan. He struck shortly before half-time against after a strong run and finish from 18 yards, but towering centre-back Beeden equalised nine minutes after half-time when bundling the ball home following a Will Hatfield free-kick.

Newcastle fielded a different starting XI for each half, and the contest ended with them scoring twice more, Dylan Stephenson adding them both.

His first came after a Rosaire Longelo pass, and his second when slotting through the legs of Quakers’ substitute goalkeeper Martin.

Armstrong added: “The lads gelled together quite well in midfield, the rotation was good. They’ve got energy, they’re all tenacious, they’re good with the ball and they can each play in the three different roles there.

“It was the first game for Junior, Alex, Will and Lexus, Luke played 20 minutes against Sheffield United. So I’m really pleased how it went as it was the first game for so many of them.”

Darlington: Taylor, Hedley, Storey, Beeden, Hope, Wheatley, Purver, Rivers, Hatfield, Mondal, Charman. Subs: Martin, Winstanley, Woodhouse, Smith, Dos Santos, Armstrong

Newcastle under-23s (first half): Brown, Oliver, Bondswell, Savage, McEntee, Brookwell, de Bolle, Allan, Ferguson, Flaherty, Wilson

Newcastle under-23s (second half): Thompson, Scott, Cross, Wiggett, Longelo, Stephenson, Carlyon, Stewart, Young, White, Turner-Cooke