Darlington entertain Cheltenham Town tomorrow at Neasham Road and badly need to get things back on track after a disappointing series of results in the league. Tuesday night's defeat in the LDV Trophy against Kidderminster Harriers was certainly a low for Quakers fans and prompted a meeting of the players and management the following day to have a frank discussion about the last couple of weeks. Both Dave Hodgson and Mark Proctor will be hoping the end product of all that will be convincing performance and a result out on the pitch.

Quakers will welcome a Cheltenham Town side who have found results on the road easy to come by of late. The Robin's last three away games have all ended up as wins for John Ward's men. The latest result on their travels came in the first round of the LDV Trophy with a 2-0 win over Shrewsbury Town - a result the manager saw as being very important.

"It was important to win on Tuesday at Shrewsbury and I picked the same team that played well against Grimsby but conceded three poor goals," said Ward on the club's official site. "The team went out and won and it restored any doubts that might have surfaced as a result of the Grimsby game - there weren't many from me I must say - and it was important to get through to the next round of the LDV for the players, supporters and club as a whole."

If Quakers are to get back on track they will need to make sure they start hitting the back of the net again. Darlington have not scored from open play since the middle of September. Darlington created plenty of chances in their last home game against Macclesfield and on the surface it appeared simply finding the net was the problem. However over the last couple of matches Quakers have created little and assistant manager Mark Proctor is looking beyond the obvious striking issues for the answers to Darlington's recent string of poor results. However the Darlington number two does not believe that Quakers have many defensive problems.

"I think defensively we are stronger and more organised than this time last year. A lot of the games last year they would attack and we'd attack and they'd attack and it was very open," said Proctor. "I think we looked a little vulnerable in the second half against Kidderminster but there wasn't a problem at Bury. I don't think defensively there are issues to address. I think someone mentioned this morning we haven't scored in open play for so many minutes so that is where we need to improve with creativity and entries in the last third."

Quakers however have a decent record against Cheltenham Town of late. Last season Dave Hodgson's side pulled off a delightful 2-0 away victory and then beat the Robins 3-1 at Neasham Road in the final game of the season. Indeed Darlington's home record against Cheltenham at Neasham Road makes for pleasant reading as Darlington have yet to loose a game against the Robins on home turf - the last home defeat coming in early 2002 when the club was still at Feethams.

Darlington's success tomorrow afternoon is off massive importance given the recent results. The players need to find that hunger which was present at the start of the season. The home support will play a vital role in helping Darlington's players. So regardless of what happens in the opening stages of the game lets get behind the lads and try to roar them onto three points.

Previous meeting with Cheltenham

Cheltenham's last five games