STEVE WATSON has told his Darlington players to forget about the various permutations at the foot of the National League North table, and instead urged them to focus on maintaining their superb recent run to the end of the season.

From a position where relegation was starting to look inevitable a month-or-so ago, Watson’s side have claimed four wins in a row to give themselves an excellent chance of avoiding the drop.

Their most recent victory was the best of the lot, with promotion-chasing Scunthorpe finishing on the wrong end of a 4-0 thrashing at Blackwell Meadows on Tuesday night.

The result took Darlington to 21st position in the table, and means only goal difference is keeping them in the drop zone. They are level on points with King’s Lynn, a point behind Rushall and two points adrift of Southport, but while Watson was understandably delighted with his side’s display on Tuesday, he is also well aware that they have not achieved anything yet.

“It was a great night for the club,” said the Quakers boss. “It was a similar game to Curzon, where we came up against a very good football side, so I was just very pleased that the shape worked out. The players all did their jobs to the letter, so it was just a really good night.

“But I keep telling the lads to put their phones away in the dressing room because we can only affect what we can do. We can only win our games. That’s a really good spell with four out of four, and five out of six, so we’re going in the right direction. But we can’t even begin to start thinking about anything else other than the next game.”

That next game is a big one, with Darlington making the short trip to Spennymoor on Saturday for an early-afternoon kick-off at the Brewery Field.

“It’s a local derby, it’s an early kick-off, but there’s a few injuries,” said Watson. “We’re down to the bare bones really, so between now and Saturday, the lads have got to rest up and then come out flying again because we need another three points.”

Watson reserved special praise for Cameron Salkeld in the wake of Tuesday’s win, with the midfielder having scored two of his side’s goals as he returned to the starting line-up.

“I’ve known Cam for a long time,” said the Quakers boss. “I had him at Gateshead. I know that he’s had a bad injury, and I know that he was desperate to be playing.

“He’s done really well coming off the bench, and I probably haven’t given him as many starts as he would have wanted. It was his chance, and all you can do when you get the chance is take it, and he’s certainly done that. It just gives us another really good option.”