Source: Northern_Echo
Quakers keep up training
Darlington should at least be able to maintain some level of training, even if the weather fails to improve this week. Having had five consecutive games postponed they are keeping their fingers crossed that they can return to action at home to Aldershot weekend. If the match goes ahead it will be Quakers' first since December 12 following the club's longest run since 1963. That was when Darlington went without a match for almost two months, although they twice endured lengthy spells without a home fixture in the mid-1980s. Regardless of the likelihood of postponements, manager Steve Staunton says he has been preparing the squad as best he can, and is grateful to Middlesbrough for their assistance. He said: All you can do is do the right things during the week and we've been fortunate enough to be able to get some training done, unlike other clubs. Middlesbrough have been very kind in letting us use their indoor centre, so we've had plenty of training, which is needed because it's been a long time since we've had an 11-a-side game. At least we've been able to train because I know of other clubs that are in a worse position than ourselves, even at levels higher than us. I was speaking to Steve Bruce and he was saying Sunderland are struggling to train. So if a Premier League club is struggling to train, what chance does everybody else have All last week we prepared to play on Saturday and that's what we've done in each of the last few weeks. There's no point getting the players into a frame of mind where they're thinking the game might be on or might be off. Once we've known the game is off we have trained them harder, as hard as we could. Quakers were due to travel to Bury on Saturday. A new date has yet to be announced, but the Port Vale home game has been set for Tuesday, March 2 (7.45pm). The fixture will represent Darlington's sixth Tuesday evening game out of seven, a run of midweek matches that commences with next week's trip to Rotherham. By then Staunton hopes to have strengthened his squad, with an experienced goalkeeper and a central defender high among his priorities. Clark Keltie is due to return to The Northern Echo Arena today, having impressed Staunton in training. Another former Quakers player, Darlington-born Alan White, has been linked with a return to the club as he has been left out of the Luton team in recent weeks by new manager Richard Money.