STEVE WATSON is trying hard to bring new players into Darlington, but admits that he is finding it difficult to persuade players to come to the club.

Quakers have scored just one goal in their last six games – Mitchell Curry’s late winner at King’s Lynn in Watson’s first game in charge – and they desperately need somebody to score goals, especially with Akwasi Asante struggling for fitness.

They’re second bottom of the National League North table, eight points adrift of safety ahead of tomorrow's game at Curzon Ashton.

Armed with the fans’ latest contributions to the Boost the Budget campaign, Watson has made enquiries for several players, but so far has been rebuffed.

“We’ve put offers in for two or three players this week, but there are a lot of players out there, who for one reason or another, don’t fancy the current situation that we’re in,” he said.

“We’ve got to not only try and find the right type of players, but also the right type of characters.

"There are two or three other players who we’ve enquired about who are carrying injuries, and it will be a week or ten days before they’re fit again.

“It’s proving difficult to bring players in, but it’s not for the want of trying. There are a couple of younger players coming in who won’t break the budget but who will add something different training with us. We’ve made a lot of enquiries, but I don’t think anybody’s been up for this particular battle yet.

“In all honesty if they’re not, they probably don’t need to be here anyway. We need people who are willing to dig in and add that little bit of steel.”

Should tomorrow's game beat the cold snap and go ahead, Quakers will be looking for their fifth away win of the season.

“Every game is massive now for us, and must be thought of as a must-win, that’s the way we’re looking at it," said Watson.

“I thought we did well to get a point against Tamworth last week. We know what we’ve got to improve on, all we can do is work as hard as we can to improve in that area in training, and try and see if we can get some help which is proving really difficult.

“We’ve seen very little of the boys. Even when we won at King’s Lynn, we realised that there was a lot of work to be done at the top end of the pitch. That’s not just the strikers, it’s the defenders and midfielders too.

“We’re aware of it, we know that the lads are capable of it, all we can do is work as hard as we can in training.”

At least Quakers have reduced the number of goals against, with just three conceded in the last three games.

“Clean sheets are massive in football, that’s the base that I always try to start with," added Watson. "The goals we’ve conceded haven’t seen us sliced open.

“Curzon will be a different kettle of fish to the three teams we’ve played so far. Those three have been pretty direct in the way that they play, whereas Curzon are a bit more of a footballing side. They use various systems, on which we’ve obviously done a lot of homework. It’s very difficult to decide which one they’ll go with, but we’re aware of them.

“Again, it’s a case of us trying to take the game to them. We’re looking to go there on the front foot and we’ll be looking to try and exploit their weaknesses, just like they’ll be trying to do to us.”

Asante and Cardo Siddik will both have fitness tests, but defender Kallum Griffiths has recovered from illness.