Darlington entertain Lincoln City tomorrow night as they look to build on last weekend's win. Quakers chalked up their fourth win of the season at the expense of Rotherham United. Darlington will now be hoping to follow it up with another valuable three points.
Despite the encouraging performance and the points assistant manager Kevin Richardson is refusing to linger on the result and has immediately turned his attentions to the next game. Lincoln have already been beaten by Darlington this season and another victory over the Imps would help reign them, and the other strugglers, in around the foot of the table.
"It's not rocket science, we need as many points as we can. We got three on Saturday after a good performance, but that's gone now, it's history. We're looking forward to Tuesday night and we'll try to get three points," said Richardson. "They're going to make it difficult. But we're the home team and it's our responsibility to break them down and get enough goals to win the game.
"They've been changing their formation a lot, but it's 10 v 10, the formation isn't as important as work-rate, effort and commitment - individually and collectively - then hopefully that all comes together. Some of the teams probably looked at the table yesterday and saw the gap is that little bit smaller. If we can now get something out of Tuesday night we're giving ourselves a fighting chance."
Darlington were handed an added boost at the weekend. Most of their fellow relegation battlers failed to pick up points. Only Cheltenham Town managed a point. Quakers have games in hand on those around them but weekends like the latest one can play a huge part in a survival bid. Richardson though is staying focused on Darlington's fortunes.
Manager Steve Staunton will be able to pick from the same team that played Rotherham at the Northern Echo Arena. Jeff Smith took a knock but could be okay for the game tomorrow evening. Meanwhile Noel Whelan, Mark Bower and Chris Lumsdon all remain absent due to injury and fitness.
"We need all the help we can get, we need to get as many points as possible and hopefully, by the end of the season, we'll have enough. I don't pay any attention to how other teams are doing. The most important thing is how Darlington performs, how many points we pick up, and let other people worry about us," he said. "But we have to build on Saturday's result. The last time we beat Rotherham we went to Crewe and our first-half performance a few days later was unacceptable, so the win was almost a waste of time because we didn't gain anything immediately after that."
"We've told the players that we can't allow that to happen again. It's important that don't do what happened at Crewe against Lincoln tomorrow night. It will be a nice change for the manager to be able to pick his team from the same squad with no new injuries because I don't think that's happened too many times this season. If the players are rewarded with being in the team again, the responsibility is on them to produce the same performance and get the same result."
Darlington's game against Lincoln City will kick-off at 7.45pm.
