Story by Kevin Luff - 3rd November 2006

Darlington entertain Chester City tonight as they look to build upon the improved form of recent matches. Quakers have steadied the ship remarkably well in recent weeks and have won two of their last four games in all competitions. Most notably however Darlington have picked up three cleans sheets in their last four games. Prior to this Quakers had only managed to record three clean sheets all season.

It is this type of form that new Quakers' boss Dave Penney will be looking to maintain as he seeks to point the team in the direction of his high tempo attacking football that he used at his previous club Doncaster Rovers. Quakers have looked much more assured in recent weeks and whilst goalscoring has been somewhat limited in the last few games Penney will be well aware that any team needs a solid base behind them to go forward and score goals - on recent evidence Quakers are going in the right direction in that respect.

Whilst Quakers enjoyed a midweek cup win at Tramere their opponents Chester City also progressed in the competition with a 3-0 home win against Stockport County. A late first half goal by Jamie Hand gave the hosts the lead and they went on to consolidate that late first half strike with a brace of goals during the final seven minutes. With the win being City's best of the campaign to date it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Chester manager Mark Wright will name an unchanged side. If Wright did this Spaniard Roberto Martinez would not find himself involved in the starting eleven despite serving his one match after being sent off last week at Barnet.

Penney and Wright know all about each other. The pair battled for promotion back during the 2002/03 campaign in the Conference. Wright managed to pick up a goalless draw and then a win over Penney's Doncaster side that season but the new Darlington manager had the last laugh when his side secured a penalty shootout win at the Deva Stadium to make it to the Conference Play-off finals where Doncaster went on to achieve promotion at the expense of Dagenham & Redbridge.

"Chester are a tough team and they had a good result. I know Mark Wright from my conference days of old," said Penney. "We had some battles there and they have a couple of my ex-players as well so I know all about Mark and Chester. He'll have his team working hard and defending properly. They will look to hit us on the break with the pace of Bludell and Walters. They are a good side and with a tough FA Cup trip after that and then we have three tough league games so it is a massive month for us."

Penney may well have made his debut as Quakers' boss in midweek at Tranmere but tonight will be where his reign as manager starts proper. The Johnstone's Paint Trophy however provided a chance for players to stake their claims and make a good early impression but tonight's game with Chester is where it will really be at. After sitting out the trip to the Wirral in midweek with knocks, both Brian Close and Joey Hutchinson could return but Julian Joachim is out with a recurrence of his hamstring injury. Martin Smith and Alun Armstrong were not in action against Tranmere but could also return to the team as well.

Darlington's game with Chester kicks off at 7.30pm tonight.