Win their next two games and Darlington would be top of the table, an encouraging fact easily overlooked in the aftermath of last weekend’s deeply disappointing defeat to promotion rivals Northwich Victoria.

Their 1-0 win at Heritage Park stunted momentum, damaging Darlington’s already fragile confidence in the wake up of a relatively poor run of form.

So it says much for the recent nosedive in form that manager Martin Gray felt it necessary to issue a rallying call to his players before training this week, offering some home truths to the squad that have lost four of their last six matches.

“We had a team meeting on Wednesday night and some very harsh words were said by myself,” said Gray, whose team face Prescot Cables at Heritage Park today.

“No punches were pulled, everything came out and I’m expecting a massive response on Saturday.

“I’d never divulge what I said, but the question is ‘how much do you want this?’

“We do everything right, the fans give us great support and it’s time to give something back to the fans and the people that have made this happen. There’s no hiding away.

“Nobody challenged me. I spoke as honestly as I could. I bullshit nobody. I want a response and I’m demanding a response over the last nine games. We’ve got a job to do and everybody has got to step up to the mark now.

“Let’s make it happen.”

Gray hopes his rousing speech will coincide with a win today that would see Quakers return to the top should Salford City suffer defeat at Ossett Town.

He knows, however, defensive mistakes must be cut out.

Darlington’s defence is still the best in the division, they have conceded 15 goals in their ten last games, but in their previous 23 league fixtures they had conceded only 13 times.

The manager said: “I’m confident in the players. You’ve got to cut out mistakes, concentration levels have got to be better and you’ve got to stop gifting teams goals.

“All the goals we’ve conceded in the last three or four games, by the team that had the best defensive record in the league, have been down to lapses in concentration.

“It’s probably cost us six or nine points, not through teams outplaying us, but through individual errors and indiscipline.

“They players know in simple terms how I feel and how badly and how passionate I feel about what we’ve got to do.”

While Darlington are at New Mills on Monday evening, Salford’s midweek game is 24 hours later, giving Gray’s team an opportunity to reclaim the leaders’ position, albeit if only briefly.

“It’s good to have a couple of games on, let’s get them played. I know New Mills always played their midweek home matches on Mondays, so others teams have had to play twice in three days.

“We’re concentrating on Saturday first.”

Aside from striker Amar Purewal, out until next season with cruciate knee injury, Gray reports a clean bill of health and Alan White will return to the line-up today.

“Apart from Amar, we’re back to full strength and we’ll pick what we think is the strongest team to start the game,” said Gray.

“Amar has been a miss, there’s no question about that. He’d be a miss to anybody because of his goals and what he can give a team on and off the ball.

“What’s more important is the players that we have and what we have got to do.”