Luke Charman is back in contention but a back problem could keep Will Hatfield out of Darlington’s first trip to Boston United’s new home on Tuesday.

He was absent on Saturday when Darlington laboured to a 2-2 draw at home to Gloucester City, and the skipper’s energy in midfield was sorely missed.

“He’s got a bit of sciatica, so we’ll see how he is for Tuesday,” said manager Alun Armstrong. “He thought he’d done his hamstring, but his hamstring is at full-strength so it’s more of a sciatic pain.

“We could’ve risked him on Saturday, but then we might’ve lost him for six weeks.

“Will’s game is about high-intensity bursts, so if he can’t do that we might as well look after him and make sure he’s right for Tuesday.”

Charman has served a three-match ban, while Joe Wheatley is available after being unavailable in recent weeks due to compassionate leave.

Wheatley was an unused substitute at the weekend, when 11th-placed Darlington stretched their unbeaten run to four games, while Boston, in eighth, have taken one point from the last nine.

The fixture will be Darlington’s first at the Jakemans Community Stadium, and Armstrong said: “Boston is usually a tough place to go, but we can’t really say that now as we’ve not been to their new ground before.

“The pitch will be good and it’ll be a new atmosphere for the lads.

“If we can match the away performances from Kettering and Chester then we should get a result.”

The match is the clubs’ first meeting for 12 months, since a fixture at Blackwell Meadows was abandoned in the closing stages when Quakers’ Nicky Hunt was knocked unconscious and needed almost an hour of treatment before being taken to hospital.

Hunt was released the following day having been given the all-clear, while the National League board later deemed that a rematch would be required – Boston had been 2-0 ahead.

The rematch was never played as the season ended early, but there may be some ill feeling lingering in Lincolnshire, as Armstrong discovered recently.

He explained: “They had players available on loan, but they wouldn’t let them come here.

“If they want to be petty like that, that’s up to them. We had no say in that game whatsoever, the league determined it had to be replayed. The league got cancelled anyway, so it didn’t matter.

“I don’t know why there’s friction when someone nearly died on the pitch, I don’t understand it. Why there’s any friction is a bit baffling from our point of view.”