Darlington want to build a run of good form and face Harrogate RA this evening when they will hand a debut to a new signing.

Left-back Ian Watson has arrived from Blyth Spartans and the 28-year-old is expected to come straight into the line-up at Heritage Park as Quakers bid to build on the weekend win at Ossett Town.

The 2-0 victory, thanks to goals by Amar Purewal and Graeme Armstrong, was their first in seven league matches, lifting Quakers up to sixth, and manager Martin Gray wants to see home momentum created with the first of two home games in four days.

His team face bottom-of-the-table Padiham on at the weekend, and Gray said: “On Saturday it was three points and a clean sheet, we move onto the next one now. That’s one game won, we need to put a run together.

“There’s no need to be concerned, but we want to put a run together and get back that good feel about the changing room so that we can all enjoy the weekend better.

“It’s been hard because of the injuries, but we’re getting players back fit so now it’s about consistency.

“We’ve got a great group, win lose or draw, we’ve always had that. They haven’t got too downhearted, but they put pressure on themselves because they want to be better, they want to be successful.

“To be fair, most of them have had success since they came to the club, we’ve just had a bad spell. It’s about pulling together and coming through a bad time.”

Saturday was a comfortable victory, one in which goalkeeper Peter Jameson was rarely occupied, and Gray added: “What is pleasing is that I asked for a 90 minute performance and I got it. We’ve not been consistent enough recently and had two good 45 minutes together, but I thought we controlled the game.

“I was really pleased with the first half and asked for more of the same in the second half. We were in control and kept a clean sheet.”

The match marked Purewal’s return after recovering from a hamstring strain, his absence having coincided with a lean spell in the team’s results.

“It’s not for me to say if I’ve been missed, you should probably ask someone else, but it’s satisfying to come back and score, especially when we haven’t won for a while,” said Purewal.

“Things can change very quickly if we get two or three wins. We’ve got two home games now and we should be aiming for six points there.

“We’ve got to be more consistent. We had two good performances at the start of the season and since then we’ve not been as good, but sometimes it’s not about performances, it’s about winning.

“We had a dodgy spell, but anyone can have one, it might happen to Salford, so we’ve just got to keep picking up points along the way, even it’s just a draw from an away game.”

Watson’s transfer was agreed at the weekend and Darlington expected to confirm it on Monday, though an announcement was delayed due to an administration issue.

He impressed Gray when Darlington faced Blyth in the FA Cup over two games last month and with injury problems and form being an issue of late, the manager decided to take action.

Leon Scott has stood in at left-back for three games because Terry Galbraith has been sidelined with a broken toe, suffered in the Cup replay against Blyth.

Watson, a former team-mate of Gary Brown when at Shildon, used Twitter to say: “Really sad to be leaving Blyth Spartans. Loved every second of it and all the people there. Would like to thank everyone at the club. At the same time, really excited for what lies ahead.”

The left-back signed for Blyth in August 2013 from Whitley Bay and made 44 appearances in his first season, scoring one goal.

His final appearance at Croft Park was against Darlington, but he was unavailable to play on Saturday when Blyth won 4-1 at Skelmersdale United in the FA Cup.