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When
the teams last met on the weekend before Christmas, The Quakers were on a
poor run of form but a return of seven points from nine since the turn of
the year has left Darlington in thirteenth position with 37 points from 28
games played.
Like their overall league position, Darlington's home form is
also mid table with 6 wins from 14 games and there have been three draws and
five defeats at the TFM Arena this season. Goal scoring has been a problem
from the Quakers with only 18 scored in their 14 home games and three of
them came in the win over Peterborough two weeks a go.
The win over Posh ended a run of six straight defeats in the
league and this run resulted in Darlington dropping from the fringes of a
play off position down to sixteenth until they picked up in the last two
weeks.
Top goal scorer for the Quakers is striker Martin Smith and
he has been joined by Julian Joachim on 8 goals so far this season. Martin
Smith joined the Quakers in the summer on a free transfer move from
Northampton after playing over 100 games for the Cobblers following his move
from Huddersfield in 2003. Joachim arrived from Boston in the summer and
scored twice against Wrexham last season for the Pilgrims.
Darlington have been busy in the transfer window with three
new arrivals. Welsh born 'keeper Lee Jones has arrived from Blackpool whilst
striker Tommy Wright has already found the back of the net in the two games
he has played since his move from Barnsley. The other signing is defender
Tim Ryan and he has also scored one goal in three games following his
transfer from Boston but striker Simon Johnson left the Quakers this week to
join Wycombe on a two week deal.
Manager Dave Penney joined the Quakers as manager at the
beginning of November and replaced Dave Hodgson who was sacked for 'open
speculation concerning another football club's contact with him'! He has yet
to find a new club. |
