Story by Kevin Luff - 8th April 2007

Despite a disappointing draw at Chester City on Good Friday Darlington remain in the play-off shake up courtesy of results around them. Once again results went favourably for Quakers meaning they are still only three points off seventh place. If Darlington are to take advantage of continued slip ups above them they need to tighten up defensively. Quakers conceded a poor goal at Chester City in their last game much to the annoyance of manager Dave Penney.

"I don't think there was much in the game. I don't think they caused us many problems until we caused ourselves a problem with the goal. Defenders have to defend and make the right decisions," said Penney. "They need to get rid of it instead of trying to play it. There was nothing in it, if we got rid of the ball we would have been alright. We can't defend like that. We've lost the defenders we had in Wheater, Miller and Ryan so we have to get on with what we've got. But quite clearly it wasn't good enough today."

Defensively Darlington have few options to change things at the back. Dave Wheater and Ian Miller have both left after their loan spells ended and Tim Ryan is currently sidelined. Kevin Burgess remains the only player Quakers could call upon to change the defensive set up however Mark Phillips is all but certain to continue at the back with Penney singling him out for praise.

"I thought he was our best player. You can see he is a decent defender and he makes the right decisions nine times out of ten. It is not pretty but it works. We will try to freshen it up. Defensively however I can't because they are the only defenders I have got. Holloway is still out, Ryan is injured and Wheater and Miller have gone back. But if we hadn't bought them in we would have been down the wrong end of the table," said Penney after the game with Chester.

Visitors Lincoln City find themselves firmly entranced in the top end of the play-off pack. Like virtually everyone else trying to make the play-offs however their form has been patchy at best. One win in their last five would normally be enough to put a team's promotion hopes in doubt but not this season with virtually everyone else replicating similar form and failing to take advantage. Lincoln though will visit Darlington looking to get revenge on the last meeting where Darlington turned in their best showing of the season and won 3-1.

The game at the Darlington Arena kicks off at 3pm.