DARLINGTON assistant manager Terry Mitchell wats his team to repeat their last home display when Alfreton come to Blackwell Meadows on Saturday.

Quakers go into the game against the division’s tenth placed side urgently needing a victory to have a chance of closing the seven point gap on fifth bottom King’s Lynn.

Quakers were hoping to reduce the gap after they beat Hereford in their last home game, but then they narrowly lost at Banbury and Brackley to leave them treading water.

“Our last home game was probably our best all round performance since Steve Watson and I took over, in terms of in and out of possession, transitions and setplays,” said Mitchell. “We thoroughly deserved to win that one, so it would be nice to get the same performance again out of the lads.

“It was frustrating not to get points out of the games after Hereford, against Banbury and Brackley, we didn’t deserve to lose them. We’re definitely getting better and closer to where we want to be. We’re coming out on top in games in possession, but you don’t win anything for possession.

“We’re not getting pushed back by teams, we’re getting the ball into the final third which is the most difficult part of the game. We’re creating chances, although we’re not creating many clear cut chances – we’d like to create a few more.

“We’re putting in the work without the ball – we’ve only conceded six goals in six games. We’re in the top ten in the league for least goals conceded in the last six matches.

“We believe that we’re on the right track. We had a good training session during the week working on the final third, crossing and finishing and there was some really good quality.

“If we can take the Hereford game again, and continue that form, then we can win again.”

This is a chance of a first double this season for Quakers, as they have already beaten Alfreton by 3-2 in the reverse fixture in August when Alun Armstrong was manager, with two goals by Finlay Barnes and another by Andrew Nelson.

Mitchell said: “Alfreton are a good, physical and strong side. They’re tenth in the league and play to their strengths, but we’ve looked at areas which we hope that we can exploit.

“The lads are full of confidence and hopefully if we get a positive performance, then we’ve got a good chance of winning.

“We need to string some wins together now, and the lads are definitely capable of doing that. The supporters are behind us, and they’ve backed us with help to get players.

“We’re still confident that we’ll get the right outcome at the end of the season.”

Striker Akwasi Asante is still missing, while defender Scott Barrow is added to the squad after recovering from illness.

Saturday's game is subject to a 9.30 am precautionary pitch inspection following the heavy rain of recent days.