While promotion is Darlington's clear priority, progress in the FA Trophy would help maintain the momentum created with six successive wins, believes defender Alan White.

Wednesday’s win over Ossett Albion continued the good run of form, something they hope to take into today’s preliminary round tie at Radcliffe Borough, where Quakers could only draw a month ago.

A disappointing 1-1 draw against opposition in the bottom half of the table made it six games without a win all competitions on a night when neither manager Martin Gray nor White were involved, both due to work commitments.

The sharp turnaround in form since then, however, has taken Darlington from ninth place to first and White wants to be part of a magnificent seventh win today at Stainton Park.

He said: “We were hoping to do well in the FA Cup, so with losing to Blyth after a replay I’d like to think we’re going to give ourselves every opportunity to do well in the Trophy so I hope we won’t be resting players.

“We’re not going to win it, let’s be honest, but we want to do well because it’s worth a bit of money and the Trophy is one them where you’ve got half a chance of doing well.

“We don’t need a rest because we haven’t got any midweek games coming up, we need finance and it’s always good to get a bit of positive publicity. Also, we’re on a good run so why not keep winning. We’ve won six in a row, let’s make it seven in a row.”

Darlington-born White was in the stands at Wembley in 2011 when Quakers won the Trophy, and he added: “It was a great atmosphere and Darlington played well. There was lots of energy among the fans, it was great.

“It would be great to get a real buzz going again, which is what would’ve happened if we’d done well in the FA Cup.

“I was at Harrogate Town a couple of years ago when we did well in the Cup, there was a real positive buzz and we started getting two or three thousand fans.

“The FA Cup and the Trophy can do that, it can create a good atmosphere.”

There is already a feelgood factor at the club thanks to the last six results, admittedly all coming against opposition towards the wrong end of the table during which time Quakers have conceded only two goals.

Between White, Chris Hunter, new signing Ian Watson on the left and Gary Brown at right-back they have kept four clean sheets, a decent record and it’s taken goalkeeper Peter Jameson’s clean total to seven in 14 league fixtures.

It’s one more than Salford City’s six – one against Quakers last month – while the promotion favourites have conceded only five times 11 league fixtures.

White added: “We don’t really keep track of how many goals we’ve let in, it’s just a case of each week trying to keep a clean sheet because already we’ve given too many goals away like against Farsley and Droylsden. We’ve let ourselves down.

“There’s been games when the opposition has one or two chances on goal and still scored, so we can’t switch off.

“If we hadn’t have won the last six games we’d have been disappointed. It’s six wins in a row which sounds good, but if we hadn’t done that we’d have let ourselves down.

“We’ve had a few tough games early on, against Salford, Farsley and Droylsden, who we should’ve beaten, we’ve played a few top teams already. So now we’re playing the teams down at the bottom so we need to be winning. Anything else would be a failure.

“I don’t think Salford are as good as Curzon last year. They’re similar, well-organised, they’re decent players, there’s no real superstars, they’re well-drilled, but it’s not just about the back-four because the midfield and forwards work hard.

“They’re a good unit, just like we are when we’re playing well. We let ourselves down when we played against them, and in other games like the second half against Droylsden.

“I don’t think are Salford are anything to be worried about – a bit like last year, we let ourselves down when we played against Curzon.”

Darlington will again be without David Dowson, while Jordan Robinson will be sidelined for six to eight weeks following an operation yesterday on a cheekbone fractured in three places.

Radcliffe are 20th, winless in nine, seven of them draws.