As Darlington prepare for their Coca-Cola Football League 2 Play-Off semi-final 2nd leg with Rochdale at Spotland, Dave Penney is aware that his players will face a test of their nerve in front of what will be a capacity crowd for the televised tie.

"It's important that we start the game well and try and keep Rochdale quiet and keep the crowd quiet.

"I'm sure they will come at us early on like we did to them last week. What's important is how we respond to that and how we defend it. We need to give ourselves a foothold in the game early on like we did last Saturday."

Spotland holds 10,200 and while Darlington will have the backing of 2,000 fans, Rochdale are close to selling out and Penney added: "In the home game last Saturday our players reacted very well but there's bound to be a more hostile atmosphere at Rochdale.

"So the players are going to have to mentally strong to stand up to the kind of atmosphere that you can expect we will have on Saturday.

"If we are mentally strong enough then we'll win. There's added pressure now and it's up the players how the react to it.

"A lot depends on how the players handle the pressure. I've been in the play-offs before and few of the players were with me at Doncaster and we've also got Rob Purdie and Julian Joachim who have been through it before too.

"You've got to try and keep calm and not put too much pressure on them. We've kept things light-hearted this week but the remain focused on what they have to do."