Source: Northern_Echo
Quakers hit by the weather
Darlington'S attentions now switch to Saturday's home game with Port Vale after their suffering a third consecutive postponement. Yesterday's home match with Lincoln City was called off due to a frozen pitch despite huge efforts in the last week by the club and supporters to clear the playing surface of snow. Freezing overnight temperatures, which were forecast not to rise during the day, meant the game was postponed following a morning pitch inspection. Quakers have thanked everyone who volunteered to help clear the pitch. It's incredibly disappointing, said general manager Phil Preston. We've done everything we possibly can and the help of our fans has been brilliant. Darlington's previous two matches, at home to Northampton and at Rotherham, suffered the same fate meaning Quakers have been out of action since December 12 the defeat at Torquay. Their enforced winter break could even continue into this weekend when the Valiants are due to visit. Forecast on Friday is snow and overnight freezing temperatures. But Darlington will be keen to have the game played in order to avoid a backlog of fixtures in the second half of the season. Dates for the rearranged Lincoln match and Rotherham game have to yet to announced. While Quakers were without a game yesterday, several sides in the bottom of the table picked up points to further leave Darlington adrift. Macclesfield and Cheltenham both in the bottom five before yesterday's matches collected three points, although second-bottom Grimsby lost at home to Port Vale. The results mean Darlington are now 14 points behind third-bottom Lincoln, though Quakers have two games in hand on many of teams in the lower half of the table.