By Martin Walker

Mark Cooper is expecting another tough work-out from League One side Carlisle United tonight.

The Cumbrians come to the Northern Echo Arena this evening for the third and final home pre-season friendly for the Quakers.

Tickets for the game are just £10 adults and £5 concessions, and are available from the ticket offices up to kick-off.

Boss Cooper is expecting another hard game as his preparations for the Blue Square Bet Premier campaign builds momentum.

"They may not have the renowned players that Sheffield Wednesday had but they still have good players from the same division and it's another tough game," said Cooper.

"Ideally we'd have pre-season the other way round, with a few lower teams early on where we could do a bit of attacking.

"But we're getting our defending out the way hopefully and we've worked on that as you've seen and they've been brilliant."

Meanwhile, Cooper has praised Darlington groundsman Gary Ventress for the club's new pitch.

"It's fantastic!" he said. "The Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday people were delighted with it.

"A couple of Sunderland players moaned about the grass being too long but it wasn't cut short deliberately to protect it, with us having three games in a week.

"Full credit to the groundsman, from the way it was last year he's turned it around and he deserves a lot of credit for that."