DARLINGTON boss Martin Gray has insisted the defeat to Droylsden earlier in the season will not be on Quakers’ minds when the sides meet at Heritage Park this afternoon.

Gray’s men let a one-goal lead slip at the Butcher’s Arms Ground in September in a game that was marred by crowd trouble.

Quakers had broken the deadlock early on through Graeme Armstrong, but after a 20-minute delay the Bloods came back to win with two second half goals despite being a man down after Ben Deegan was sent off.

Gray admitted last week his side needed to win all of their remaining games if they are to finish ahead of leaders Salford City, who face Spennymoor today, and they will look to build on Tuesday night’s impressive performance at Northwich Victoria.

If the title ends up away from Heritage Park at the end of the season, Quakers will look back on the defeat to Droylsden as a missed opportunity but Gray has insisted his side are focused on the future, not the past.

“We did throw the game away earlier in the season, but it’s just going to be business as usual,” Gray said. “It doesn’t matter whether we’re playing Droylsden or whoever, it’s just our next game.

“We’ve got six games to go and hopefully we’ll have another strong performance like we did on Tuesday.”

Gray got the performance he wanted midweek after a run of four defeats in six games over February and March and he wants more of the same in their remaining games.

He said: “I always ask for 100 per cent commitment and I always get it, but sometimes it’s about decision making, and on Tuesday it was consistently better. For 90 minutes we made better decisions and when you do that you’ve got a better chance.

“The full-backs gave good quality balls into the front men and Graeme Armstrong was the best he’s been for a long time, he caused all sorts of problems.

“Tom Portas and Leon Scott were excellent all night in midfield. They battled away in excellent conditions, which they had to because Northwich have got some good players for this level of football, so we had to stop them playing and we did that.

“It was a strong team performance. We showed good signs in the second half last week against New Mills and we carried that on against Northwich.

“It was a fantastic result and it keeps us where we need to be.”

Gray has Alan White available again after serving his suspension and his return is likely to see Gary Brown move to right-back.

David Dowson is a doubt after he went off injured at half-time in Tuesday’s win with Nathan Cartman likely to step into the side if he isn’t fit.

While Quakers will be focused on beating Droylsden, there will be interest in what happens in the North West, where Salford host Moors.

Moors moved up to third in the table following their 3-1 win over Padiham. Jason Ainsley’s men can still win the league, they sit six points behind Darlington and nine behind Salford with one and two games in hand over the top two respectively.