Darlington manager Alun Armstrong believes his team is a capable of causing an upset in their fourth round FA Trophy tie at Southend’s Roots Hall on Saturday.

Quakers go to the National League side having won their last seven away games in league and Trophy, and Armstrong says that his players have nothing to lose.

“It’s a free hit as far as we’re concerned,” he said. “Southend are a team from the league above, but it’s a team we can really test ourselves against. This competition is one that’s winnable. That’s why I like staying in this competition, because you can get to Wembley.

“I haven’t decided how we’re going to approach the game yet, whether we’ll go for it or to sit back and absorb. I know what we’ve got in the changing room, and I know we’ll give Southend a game.

“It’s going to be tough, and we’ll have to be at our best. Southend have got some good players, but they may be distracted by the off the field issues that are going on down there. We’ve got to use it to our advantage.”

While Quakers have been rampant away – they’ve scored 14 in their last three away games - they lost their last home game against Chorley by 3-0 last week.

“The lads know that they let themselves down last week, and we’ve gone through the stats which backed up exactly what was said. As much as that was frustrating, it’s gone and done now.

“Now they’ve got to put things right, they’ve got a fantastic opportunity to prove everyone wrong.

“They were miles away from running as much as they usually do. Some of them were 2k or 3k down by as much as they usually do. The biggest thing was the timing of it. We were in possession of the ball a lot more than Chorley before the two incidents in the game last Saturday, then the flow of the game changed.

“It was disappointing that the lads reacted like that. I thought they could have been stronger and stood up to that, but they let themselves down.

“It’s an opportunity now for the players to put themselves in the shop window, and get people taking notice of them. It’s a hell of a reward.

“We’ve really been enjoying our recent games on the road, the results have been fantastic. I’m sure there’ll be a massive turnout of fans and they’ll give us some great backing. For some unknown reason on and off the field, we’ve been flat at home.”

During his playing spell with Quakers, Armstrong scored a hat-trick in only his second home game in a 4-0 rout of Southend in October 2004 at the Arena.

“I’d totally forgotten about that hat trick! It was the only one in my career. I should have had more than three on the day.

“It would be nice for someone to come up trumps and do that this Saturday. We’re more than capable of winning, but we need to be at our best, be right on our game from the off, show the same energy in games when we’ve won recently, be composed at the back, and be well-organised.”

Striker Junior Mondal is ineligible because he played for Marske earlier in the competition, while defender David Wheater is still out injured.

This will be Quakers’ first visit to Roots Hall since they played the Shrimpers in League Two in January 2005, when they lost 2-0. Their last win there was in August 2000 when Craig Liddle – father of Ben – and Lee Nogan scored.

Southend are sixth in the National League, having lost just three times at home in the league.

This is their second season in the league, having been relegated with Grimsby at the end of the 2020-21. They finished mid-table last season, and are having an improved campaign this time round under manager Kevin Maher, but they’ve had financial problems in recent years, and have had issues with HMRC.