Story by Kevin Luff - 16th February 2007
Darlington player Neil Wainwright will make his 250th appearance for Quakers tomorrow at Swindon Town should he be selected or come on as substitute. Wainwright joined the club during the 1999/00 season on loan from Sunderland before signing a permanent deal in 2001. Since the arrival of Dave Penney in October Wainwright has figured more prominently and in the recent fans forum was described as one of the most improved players by the manager.
Quakers' injury list has started to clear up but Tim Ryan is certain to miss the game against Swindon thanks to continued problems with his hamstring caused by a back problem. Tommy Wright is fit enough to travel with the team but a decision over his inclusion will be left late. Meanwhile Martin Smith has returned to training but is not in line to start the game on Saturday. Also out of Saturday's clash against the Robins is Clark Keltie. The skipper's booking against Bristol Rovers was his fifth and he will now miss one game.
Swindon face defensive problems for this clash. Captain Ady Williams was hobbling badly after a recent training session and is a doubt for the game. Swindon manager Paul Sturrock also has another player struggling with injury and when asked if he was struggling at the back admitted he was. Sturrock however is not expected to dip into the loan market to cover the gaps.
"Ady is one of the ones that's struggling and there's another struggling. We'll wait and see how both come through Friday's training," said Sturrock. "We'll give the people at the football club the opportunity on Saturday if it comes to that. We'll take stock of the situation from there. If someone else comes in, can you guarantee me the boy coming in is going to be able to fit into the back four very, very quickly, understand the workings of it and the foibles of the players he's playing alongside?"
Swindon will be looking to return to winning ways. The Robins' last game (at Rochdale) was called off and it means the last match played by Swindon was the 1-0 home defeat to Hartlepool United. Swindon currently lie third in the table and Sturrock has continued where former manager Denis Wise, who departed for Leeds, left off. Quakers though are in good form at the moment and have got some good results on their travels.
"They are all hard games wherever you play and we've got to do what other teams do when they come to our place - frustrate them, frustrate the crowd, keep it quiet and make it a boring game. We did that at Bristol Rovers, Macclesfield and Grimsby and we got something out of those games," said Penney. "Every game we set out to get something from it. As you've seen with our results away from home we have been excellent of late. We'll go with the same type of attitude, see what shape they go with and take it from there."
Darlington's match at the County ground kicks off at 3pm.
