TICKETS for Darlington’s highly-anticipated play-off semi-final with Spennymoor Town at Heritage Park go on sale today to Quakers’ season ticket holders.

The attendance at the league meeting between the sides in November at Heritage Park was 1,637, but a sell-out at the 2,004 capacity ground is expected next week as the local rivals go head-to-head.

As expected, the match is all-ticket and will be played on Wednesday (7.45pm), the final being three days later against either Northwich Victoria or Bamber Bridge.

Prices are £10 adults, £5 concession/child (under 16) and are for general ground admission with seating on a first come, first served basis. The two sets of supporters will be segregated. Moors fans will be accommodated in the temporary seating end of Heritage Park.

Darlington season ticket holders’ opportunity to buy tickets is today between 10am and 1pm at Blackwell Meadows. They go on general sale at tomorrow’s game at Heritage Park against New Mills and will be limited to two per individual.

Any remaining tickets will be on sale on from Monday at Blackwell Meadows between 10am-1pm.

There will be no sales on the day of the game, while no details about the number of tickets allocated to Spennymoor have been announced.

Moors’ season ticket holders’ first opportunity to purchase tickets will be at 5.15pm tomorrow at the Brewery Field after their match with Burscough. An allocation of five tickets per season ticket holder is permitted. Tickets will go on general sale from 6pm until 6.30pm.

Moors’ club shop will also be open on Sunday 12-2pm, Monday 6-8pm and Tuesday 6-7pm.

Prices are £1 more than Quakers’ usual ticket prices, though the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League receive 25 per cent of the net gate from play-off games with 37.5 per cent going to each club.

Quakers complete their league programme tomorrow against already-relegated opposition, a match with little at stake and one that manager Martin Gray is wary of risking his first-team players in.

A year ago, with Curzon Ashton having already wrapped up the title and in preparation for the play-off semi-final, Gray made changes for the final two matches and is likely to do similar tomorrow.

He said: “I’ll have a look at it between now and Saturday and decide what the right thing is to do. I’ll speak to players, I’ll speak to staff and I’ll make that decision by Saturday.

“We’re in good form, we’ve won six and drawn two, performances have been good. But Saturday is a nothing game and I can’t afford any players to get injured or cause any problems for Wednesday.”

Darlington will finish second, their 1-1 draw at Warrington Town on Tuesday bringing an end to their title hopes.

Within 30 minutes of the full-time whistle Gray had called Salford joint-manager Anthony Johnson and one of the club’s high profile owners, Gary Neville, to offer his congratulations.

He explained his magnanimous gesture, saying: “I think it’s important that you applaud teams that have won the championship. I’d expect any manager worth their salt to congratulate the winners.

“The pressure has been on them as much as it’s been on us. It’s been a two-horse race all season, we’ve made it a really exciting league and whether we like it or not they are the champions. We’ve now got to make sure we go into the play-offs and do what we’ve got to do.

“It’s not just about money. Salford spend money, but so do we. It’s about football and putting a team together and it’s also about how you spend your money, what you do with it.

“I can’t fault my players this season, they’ve been outstanding.”

However, Gray was less complimentary about Warrington.

There is no love lost between Quakers supporters and Warrington manager Shaun Reid following the abandoned match on the first day of the season, when the Yellows’ boss decided the game should not continue following an injury to the referee.

Eight months later Warrington, who rested players last Saturday, denied Darlington the title, and Gray said: “I was disappointed with Warrington.

“They played 4-5-1, they went defensively. As a manager you go out to win games, they had everything to play for but they set their stall out to be defensively-minded.

“That’s football, you come up against that and you’ve got to break them down. We did break them down, we just couldn’t do the final bit.

“Let’s hope we’ve saved a few goals for the play-offs. We’ve got to make sure we do that job now.”

Reid used social media yesterday to say: “Might have a pint in Salford on Saturday night on my way home from Clitheroe.”