DARLINGTON are hoping to complete the return of midfielder Will Hatfield in time for their trip to Scunthorpe tomorrow night.

Hatfield left Quakers for AFC Fylde in March 2022, and even though he was part of the squad that won the National League North last season, he has found that his game time will be limited and has agreed the termination of his contract.

That has allowed Quakers manager Alun Armstrong to step in and sign the midfielder, who played 87 games at the club in his first spell, scoring 11 goals. The signing is subject to FA and National League approval.

Manager Alun Armstrong said: “It’s great that he’s back - we know what he’s capable of, and he’s exactly the type of player we need in the middle of the park.

“He’s different to what we’ve got, he’ll run through brick walls for you. He’s a fantastic person on top of that.”

Hatfield, who has also been at Guiseley and York before in his career, said: "I’m delighted to return. I’ve known since I left Darlington that one day I was going to be back.

"It might be sooner than I thought it would be, but I’m delighted. It’s taken a few weeks, and I’m raring to go again.

“I had a great time at Fylde. I wanted to go to Fylde in order to win promotion, and I would have liked to have played more than I did in the year-and-a-half that I was there. I loved every minute of it, I have no regrets whatsoever.

“I had the best years of my career at Darlington, and I feel that I’ve got some more to give. Darlington was the only club I wanted to go to. I met some great people along the way, team-mates, management team, fans.

“Every year, this league gets stronger and stronger. Last season, Darlington had a great start to the season and fell away near the end. We’ve got to keep our standards really high and aim for the play-offs – it’s what I want to do."

Armstrong, meanwhile, is hoping his players can reproduce a performance similar to Saturday’s when they travel to Glanford Park tomorrow, and this time be rewarded with the points.

It’s only 14 years since Scunthorpe were a Championship club, and a change in ownership this year has seen them become one of the big spenders in National League North as they seek to reverse their decline. They started with a 2-1 away win at Tamworth, but then drew 1-1 with Peterborough Sports at the weekend.

“People won’t be expecting us to get anything from there,” said Armstrong. “We’ll play with freedom and give it a go.

“I was gutted but not disheartened after Saturday. We were 100 times better than the week before, it was a shame that we didn’t get what we deserved."

Darlington fans have mixed memories of Glanford Park in the past. Quakers were relegated there in 1989, had their promotion hopes delayed in 1991, and missed out on automatic promotion in 1996. Quakers’ last visit there was in January 2005, when Armstrong scored the only goal of the game.