Source: Northern_Echo
Big spell ahead for the Quakers
Darlington this evening begin a spell of four successive home games that could prove pivotal to the season's outcome. Mark Cooper's side are 11 points off the last play-off spot which is currently occupied by Fleetwood Town, who visit The Northern Echo Arena in seven days. Before that comes Saturday's intriguing FA Trophy tie at home to Salisbury City, but first up is tonight's home encounter with sixth-placed Kidderminster Harriers. This series of crucial home games, the last of which is against Cambridge United a week on Saturday, is sure to test Darlington's already under-strength squad. Striker Liam Hatch is out as he serves the final game of a two-match ban, while there question marks of the availability of Dan Burn, Jamie, Chandler and Greg Taylor. Burn sustained a minor knee injury last week so was rested for Saturday's 1-1 draw at Forest Green Rovers, a match in which Chandler was used a substitute due to the early exit of Taylor with a pelvic problem. Chandler though, on the bench as he had not fully recovered from a calf injury, reported no immediate concerns after putting in a man of the match display. Chris Senior is not yet considered fully fit since recovering from a knee problem that kept him on the sidelines for three months, while John Campbell has missed two games with a broken hand. The club have suffered a terrible run of injuries, though Paul Terry is edging closer to a comeback. He has been out since October with cruciate ligament damage but joined in the warm-up on Saturday, while Gareth Waite hopes to return in late March. The injuries are ridiculous, it's crazy, said Cooper. It's something we have to look at but I'm not sure it's something we could've done much about because most of the injuries have come in matches and not training. Dan Burn tweaked his knee ligament last Tuesday against Cambridge and with Adam Quinn not being able to play on Saturday we didn't want to risk Dan so gave him a rest at Forest Green to try and get his knee 100 per cent. Jamie trained on Friday and had a little reaction to his injury. We've got a lot of games coming up so we thought we'd rather he missed Saturday so he'd be available for the rest of the season rather than risk him. You're going to miss people like Liam Hatch and John Campbell because they've done well, but we're not going to cry about it. We haven't got those players for different reasons, it's as simple as that, and that's why you have a squad, to cover. Hopefully we'll have 11 fit players on Tuesday but whatever the team is we will be trying to pass the ball, get forward and score some goals. Despite having so many matches still to play, having games in hand on most of their Blue Square Bet Premier rivals, Cooper does not envisage resting players. He said: If I rest players I'd get accused of chopping and changing. I've been accused of making too many changes and now it could be people saying you shouldn't have played him, you should've rested him'. That's the joys of being a manager. Every game is equally important because there's players out of contract and we aren't going to discuss them until the end of the season. So the players have got to earn a new contract between now and the end of the season, every game is important.