The squad travelled up to the Northeast on Friday morning with Chris Westwood unlikely to figure after he picked up a hamstring injury, which forced The Saddlers right-back off during the first half of their 4-1 victory against Barnet. However manager Richard Money will not be short of options available to him with Craig Pead, Mark Wright and Geordie Lyall who is yet to make his debut for Walsall.

Long serving defender, Ian Roper is ruled out with knee ligament damage, which could rule him out for the rest of the season. Roper joins fellow defender Allan Picken on the sidelines, who is also out with a knee injury, which has kept the Australian defender out for most of this season since he arrived from New Zealand Knights in the summer.

New boys Kevin Harper and Kevin Cooper will be looking to put in another impressive performance; the duo joined from Stoke City and Cardiff City respectively and started the game against Barnet. Harper, who was named Man of the Match in the Barnet game, scored two goals on his return to Bescot Stadium after seven years away from the club.

Darlington who will be hoping to make a push towards the play offs will be looking for at least a point for this game. 

Darlington goalkeeper, Lee Jones, who joined the club in January, has been playing with a groin strain in recent weeks as fellow ‘keeper Sam Russell is sidelined with a thigh problem.

Defensive duo David Wheater and Ian Miller have been putting in impressive performances since joining from Middlesborough and Ipswich respectively.

The Quakers will be expected to be starting with former Saddlers loanee’s Julian Joachim and Tommy Wright. Wright who had a brief spell at The Saddlers a few months back joined from Barnsley on loan, while Joachim snubbed a move to The Saddlers following an impressive loan spell at Bescot Stadium.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes