Darlington hope history does not repeat itself today when they begin the year by heading to Kendal Town.

Rain is forecast throughout today, 12 months to the day that Quakers’ match at Kendal was postponed only an hour before kick-off due to a waterlogged pitch when some fans were already inside the ground.

They were offered refunds, although Kendal used social media later to claim that referee Bernard Law had made the wrong decision.

Should the game get the go-ahead, Darlington would find themselves facing a team in curious form. Their last two home league games have been a 4-0 defeat to Burscough and followed by Boxing Day’s 6-0 victory over Prescot Cables. Between those fixtures the Cumbrians won 3-2 at Lancaster City.

Darlington can certainly be sure not to expect a walkover in the manner of August’s fixture at Heritage Park, when the visitors had Mark Jackson and Rory Winters sent off early on, effectively eliminating any competitive element from the fixture, and Darlington strolled to a 7-0 win.

On the back of a good run of form, Darlington are itching to get back into having defeated play-off contenders Scarborough Athletic 3-0 on Boxing Day, but they missed an opportunity to extend their undefeated run at the weekend when their match at Farsley was postponed due to snow on the West Yorkshire club’s pitch.

Most of the matches in the division were called off, while third-placed Salford City missed an opportunity to leapfrog Quakers as they lost 1-0 at in-form Harrogate RA.

No doubt buoyed by Salford’s slip, Darlington manager Martin Gray said: “I’d be telling lies if I said I don’t look at other teams’ results, it’s our job to do that, but what’s important is that we stay strong consistently.

“We need to stay resilient, very hard to beat and focused on the next game.

“After what was an indifferent start to the season, we’ve had a fantastic run. We’re now one point behind with games in hand.”

Gray will be able to call on Gary Brown and Liam Hatch today, both having served three match bans which have taken twice as long to complete than originally expected due to three postponements in recent weeks. No dates have yet been announced for the three rearranged games.

Gray added: “Gary and Liam are available again, which is pleasing. It’s good to fill your bench with senior players because you don’t want to be relying on younger lads, which is unfair on them.”

Teenage striker Matty Pennal was an unused substitute against Scarborough, and the next day scored for Seaham Red Star in the Northern League against Ryton.

He is registered to play them in a loan from Quakers, while defender Paul Weldon is building his fitness with Sunderland RCA.

Graeme Armstrong is today bidding to score in his fourth successive game having overtaken Amar Purewal in becoming the squad’s leading scorer.

He’s netted twice in each of Quakers’ last two games, and Gray said: “He was really strong and gave Scarborough’s centre-backs a real handful.

“He might have been disappointed he didn’t get a hat-trick, but he led the line well, scored two fantastic headers and made a big impact.

“We have a very good goals against record, we’re strong in both boxes and when we’re in form there’s not many teams can live with us.

“Alan White and Chris Hunter were really powerful together, and the two forwards, Army and David Dowson complimented each other very well.”