Gray warns Quakers against complacency

The semi-final showdown sees Darlington welcome Spennymoor to Heritage Park, where they have already beaten them once this season.

Graeme Armstrong’s goal when the teams met in November meant Darlington completed the double having also won 2-0 at the Brewery Field in August, giving Quakers cause for optimism going into tonight’s sold-out encounter.

A year ago Quakers were beaten in the play-off semi-final by Ramsbottom, who had defeated Darlington twice in the league, but Gray is wary of complacency creeping in ahead of the contest between the local rivals.

“The results against Spennymoor this season mean nothing, this is a different game, simple as that,” said Quakers’ boss. “Those games were months ago, the first one was at the start of the season, and they’ve got nothing to do with this week.

“This is different to the play-off last year because this is two teams who know each other inside out, there’s no getting away from that and it’s about who performs the best on the night.

“We’ve won seven and drawn two of the last nine, so we’ve finished the season very strongly.

“You need a little bit of luck that everybody asks for, you need the referee to do his job right and the players to do their job right. You need all of those things to fall into place on the day.”

Gray reports no new injury concerns and says that Liam Hatch, usually unavailable for midweek matches, is in the squad.

Chris Hunter has been carrying a muscle strain of late, but he is expected to start tonight with Darlington due to make 11 changes from the side which won 3-1 on Saturday against New Mills.

The result meant they ended the campaign on 91 points, one more than last season, but in the short history of the Evo-Stik First Division North clubs finishing as runners-up have a poor track record in the play-offs.

In the division’s seven previous seasons the only time the second-placed team has won promotion via the play-offs was in 2007-08 when FC United went up, a statistic which suggests teams can suffer from a hangover having missed out on finishing first.

Darlington were also second a year ago, but Gray believes his players possess a more upbeat frame of mind this time.

He said: “The disappointment was at Lancaster over a week ago, that’s when it kicked in for myself in the changing room after that game.

“On the way back I stopped at the services and the players pulled in too and I saw a really positive group. I stood back and listened to them, I heard their camaraderie and I know they were the same on the bus coming home.

“They’ve got self-belief and I believe that our mindset going into the play-offs is very different to what it was last year.

“It was more downbeat last year, it wasn’t as positive. The Ramsbottom results over the season played a part, but we learned a lot from that game as staff and players. We’ve had the experience of a play-off and that should put us in good stead for this week.

“You hope to have learned from it regarding how you go about your business on the day.”

With a return to Darlington to look forward to next season, tonight's game could be the last fans see of Heritage Park before heading to Blackwell Meadows, although they hope to be back at Bishop Auckland's ground on Saturday for the final.

Gray added: “The club has had a fantastic year as a whole, on and off the pitch. We’re looking forward to going home, lots of positive steps have been made on that score and the fans have been fantastic again.

“On Saturday they knew that the youth team would be turning out, we got 1,100, they showed their loyalty.

“I’ve said things before about wanting a lot of noise from the crowd, but we know the place will be jumping on Wednesday night. The majority of the people will be backing Darlington and that is going to be a massive factor for the players.”

Tonight's referee is Craig Dean of Chester-le-Street. He has taken charge of two Quakers matches this season, both home wins, 5-0 against Ossett Town and 2-0 versus Brighouse.