Story by Kevin Luff - 16th April 2006

Darlington travel to Cheltenham this Easter Monday knowing that after the defeat to Northampton Town they really need to pick up points against the Robins. Cheltenham picked up maximum points on Saturday with a 2-1 win at Torquay United. Like Darlington in their recent match at Plainmoor Cheltenham trailed at the break but managed to score twice in the space of ten second half minutes. Cheltenham boss John Ward was delighted with the turn around in the second forty-five minutes.

"We found ourselves 1-0 down after a nothing first half and we said that we hadn't got around the back enough. JJ Melligan and Brian Wilson played very narrow at times and we said we wanted to get a bit more width. We did that in the second half and Jerry Gill put over a quality cross for Damian Spencer to score with a very good header," said Ward. "It was a big second half performance and we are capable of doing that when it's required. We had to battle from a goal down and we felt that if we were to equalise, then maybe with the position Torquay are in they would realise they had a lot to lose. Ian Atkins went for broke really by putting on some different players and we needed to keep our nerve then. We had to make sure that we defended properly, which we did, and then see if we could hit things on breaks. We have the quality of player to do that as we have seen at times this season and again today."

The Whaddon Road based side are currently sitting in sixth place and looking good for the play-offs. Any hope of the Robins easing off however appears to be poorly founded as assistant manager Keith Downing revealed his side are after four more wins. Cheltenham are seven points ahead of the play-off hopefuls and need just three more points to secure their place in the play-offs.

"At the start of the weekend we had five games left and our target was to win all five. That might sound like a big ask but that's what we wanted to do. We've got the first one of those out of the way and now we are looking forward to a tough game against Darlington," said Downing on the club's official website. "People talk about looking over the shoulder and worrying about what's behind, but we have tried to get the players to look upwards and see who we can catch. I think that in itself gives people a positive outlook instead of being tentative. If you can do that it asks questions of the people around you. It's still our intention of trying to finish in the top three and we will continue to ask those questions if we can."

Darlington secured a morale boosting 3-1 win over Cheltenham in their last meeting back in October. The result at the TFM Darlington Arena moved Quakers above Cheltenham in the League two table but it served to spur the Robins on. Despite a 2-0 defeat to Mansfield Town the following weekend Cheltenham went on to win all their games in November - a run which included an FA Cup result over Carlisle United. Cheltenham have enjoyed a memorable season having played hosts to Premiership side Newcastle United and look set to seal a place in the top seven and extend it by at least two more games.

The top seven is still very much Darlington's aim but they will need to recover quickly from the set back against Northampton Town on Saturday. Darlington boss David Hodgson has set his side a target of three wins in the remaining four games. Whilst, at least by the manager's reckoning Quakers can afford another slip up, a win after the Northampton result could be worth just as much as the points as it would set the team up nicely for the last leg of the campaign.

Previous meeting with Cheltenham

Cheltenham's last five games