Source: Northern_Echo
Quakers’ captain aims for a top-five finish
The play-offs are Darlington's minimum target - that's the message from captain Ian Miller as Quakers prepare for the new season. The campaign kicks-off at The Northern Echo Arena on Saturday with Mark Cooper's side bidding to improve on last season's seventh place. That means ending the term in the top five which would give Darlington a chance of promotion in the play-offs, while finishing top of the top of the table would be promotion back to the Football League. That is the ideal scenario, but with so many clubs investing heavily in their playing budget this summer, including the likes of Fleetwood, York and Grimsby, competition for the top spot will be fierce. Nevertheless, Miller and his team-mates are gunning for a return to League Two. Ahead of Saturday's home match with Braintree Town, the captain said: "I certainly think if we don't make the play-offs at least we can be very disappointed. "We're confident as a squad, the manager's confident and the chairman and the board are too. "As was last year, there's always teams that start to show themselves as contenders around Christmas time and we've got to make sure we are one of them this season. "Last year was disappointing, because we threw away so many points and, if you look at the ones we dropped, we had every chance of making the play-offs, but we've got to see games out in a more professional manner." Fleetwood are the bookies' favourites to take the title having added ten players to their squad, including Keith Briggs, Richard Brodie, Andy Mangan and Rob Atkinson who were all highly sought-after in the division. But Miller added: "Everyone's talking about Fleetwood throwing money about, but you can throw as much money about as you want it doesn't mean a teams going to gel and win every game." Saturday's match represents Braintree's first in the Conference having won promotion last season from the Blue Square Bet South. The fixture has similarities with Darlington's opening day game a year ago when visitors to the Arena were Newport County who were playing their first Conference game since being made bankrupt in 1989. Miller added: "When you look at the first game we've got, against another newly promoted side in Braintree, it's going to be a tough match. "It doesn't matter whether you're against the league favourites or the promoted sides - Newport came up last year and did very well. I don't think this year there's going to be any easy games."