Story by Kevin Luff - 13th April 2007

Darlington make their first trip to MK Dons this weekend looking to get their first win in five league games. Both sides have endured a disappointing Easter campaign. Darlington's results against Chester and Lincoln City have left them four points off the play-offs. Dave Penney's men now need a mammoth set of results and other team's above them to drop points if they are to make the top seven.

Similarly MK Don's disappointing form in the first two games of April may well have cost them an automatic promotion spot. Back to back defeats, the first of the campaign, at the hands of Grimsby and Shrewsbury appear to have done little to boost what was already a flagging set of results. Dons manager Martin Allen has already conceded that Swindon Town are now in the driving seat for promotion but will be at least hoping to keep the pressure on.

Likewise Penney admits it will be a hard task to make up the ground between his side and their ambitions. "We wanted to be picking up maximum points up if we could. We let a sloppy goal in at Chester but got one late on. We were a lot better on Monday where we dominated the game until the final twenty-minutes. Certainly up to that point we were the better side. It just goes to show really that we are not quite good enough. We were hoping to sneak in and still can. Its not dead yet but games are running out and they are all tough ones as well," said the Darlington boss.

Penney has already reiterated that there is plenty to play for in the remaining fixtures - especially for the players, many of who are out of contract come the summer. The Darlington boss though is not throwing in the towel and still wants to see a concerted effort to finish as far up the table as possible.

"You can't just give in," said Penney. "It would have been a lot better if we had picked up six points over Easter but there is still a lot to play for. Certain players are playing for contracts and we want to get as many points on the board and finish as high as we can. In football matches you should want to win every game and that should never change. We will be going out to win all the games we've got left."

Both sides have injury and suspension problems going into this game. Jude Stirling starts a three-match suspension after his red card against the Shrews was upheld by an FA disciplinary panel on Thursday. Also out for MK Dons is Aaron Wilbraham (ankle), Jamie Smith (ankle) and Paul Mitchell (broken leg). Darlington will continue to be without Tommy Wright. The forward still has two games on the sidelines thanks to a four game ban for his red card at Barnet. Ricky Ravenhill is suspended for two games. With Clark Keltie also absent due to injury Kalu Ngoma could be back in-line for a place. Finally Martin Smith's knock during the Lincoln game which left him was dazed is has ruled him out.