Source: Northern_Echo
Cooper wants to strengthen forward line
AFTER watching his side suffer their third defeat in four games, Darlington boss Mark Cooper revealed his main priority in the summer will be to strengthen his attacking line.[LNB] Scoring goals has been a big problem for Quakers this season with Cooper's men one of the lowest scoring side's in the Blue Square Bet Premier with 48 goals in 38 games.[LNB] Only four teams in the division have scored fewer goals than 11th placed Darlington.[LNB] Leading scorer Liam Hatch was missing from Tuesday's defeat at Newport County, with Cooper selecting Chris Senior to partner Michael Smith - a front line that has just nine goals between them this campaign.[LNB] Smith was brought off a half time and replaced by Nathan Modest, but he also failed to create any chances, forcing Cooper to send centre-back Adam Quinn up front to try and cause some problems.[LNB] Quinn did put the Newport back-line under pressure and his switch from defence to offence made Quakers look far more dangerous.[LNB] "He caused havoc," Cooper said. "He was more like Jimmy Quinn than Adam Quinn.[LNB] "Michael Smith has to look at him. I know he's a young lad, but he should be thinking 'I should be doing that, I'm bigger, fitter and quicker,' and he has to ask himself why he didn't cause any problems.[LNB] "He's a young lad and I don't like digging them out, but we need goals."[LNB] "Whoever plays up front needs to score goals and we're missing that. Marc Bridge-Wilkinson hasn't scored for a little while so it probably tells you where we need to spend most of our money in the summer.[LNB] "We missed Hatchy, especially in the first half. He's a handful, he runs, he's big, wins headers and doesn't give the defenders a moment and the lads didn't do that enough on Tuesday.[LNB] "We had to give him a rest, he's had a sore calf for a couple of weeks and if he had carried on it might have got worse and we don't want to take any chances, but hopefully he should be OK for Saturday."[LNB] Cooper has made no secret that he plans on making several changes over the summer, and has already conceded that highly-rated defender Dan Burn is unlikely to be at the club next season.[LNB] The teenager has attracted interest from several Premier League clubs since breaking into Quakers' team with Everton manager David Moyes present at Newport to watch the centre-back.[LNB] Since Quakers confirmed their place in the FA Trophy final, their league form has dipped.[LNB] After suffering one defeat in 19 games, Cooper's men have now lost three of their last four, form which has seen their play-off chances disappear and the Quakers boss admits it is clear his players already have the trip to Wembley on May 7 on their minds.[LNB] "I know even more about the players now than I did before," Cooper said.[LNB] "When you come to Newport on a horrible wet and windy night on a not so good pitch you have to have the kind of players that Stevenage had last year and Crawley have got this year and deal with the conditions, it might not be pretty but they get three points.[LNB] "Whatever way you look at it, if you get to a Wembley final it takes over because players minds are on it, on whether they've got enough tickets for their family, are they going to be fit if they go into tackles and so on.[LNB] "People are desperate to play there and are worried about everything else apart from the bread and butter and that's cost us any chance of making the play-offs."[LNB]
