Darlington are aiming for third successive win

Darlington are looking for their third straight win when they go to Peterborough Sports on Saturday. Their play off ambitions received a big boost this week with a 2-0 victory at Hereford last Saturday and a dramatic stoppage-time 2-1 win over Radcliffe on Tuesday thanks to two goals by Jack Maskell. They are now in tenth place, seven points behind seventh-placed Hereford with two games in hand on the three clubs above them. Assistant manager Terry Mitchell said: “It will be nice to win three games in a row after three defeats in a row. “We’ve really bounced back well. We’re not too concerned about performances, but the last two results have been really pleasing. “Hereford was a very good performance, and Radcliffe wasn’t as good but we found a different way to win in the face of adversity. Losing your centre half after 10 minutes doesn’t help, but Charlie Stirland came in and did a great job. “Then Scott Barrow got injured in the second half, so we had to change things again. “It was a great way to win the game with the last header of the game by Jack, so we’ve had a good four days, and it will be brilliant to top it off with a good performance today. “This will be a difficult game against a team that is just below us in the league and is still in with an outside chance of getting into the play offs.” Darlington are badly hit by injuries for the trip southwards, with three players - Cameron Salkeld, Tom Platt and Kallum Griffiths - definitely out. Elliot Forbes and Barrow, who came off with injuries on Tuesday, will have fitness tests, as well as Caden Kelly and Andrew Nelson. Young midfielder Will Maddison, who has been playing for Darlington Town in the Northern League, will likely be in the squad again. “We are hopeful of some of the lads being fit, but others are going to be two or three weeks, which means that they could miss five games,” added Mitchell. “We haven’t got a big squad. The lads are doing brilliant, but it gives us less chance to rotate certain players. Playing twice a week also takes it mentally out of them. “We had a long journey to Hereford last weekend, we played Tuesday, and now we have two long journeys in four days coming up. We gave the lads a break from training on Thursday to help them. It’s not ideal playing this many games in a short space of time, but we’ve still got a lot to play for. “If we can win three out of our next five games, that would give us a real good chance of getting into the play offs in the last five games of the season.” Peterborough Sports are having their best season since they came into this league three years ago, and are a place below Quakers in the league. They will include former Darlington striker Kaine Felix in their squad. On Tuesday evening, Darlington play at Alfreton.