Rotherham United must put the disappointing defeat to Bournemouth behind them and quickly re-find the winning habit when they travel to the Darlington Arena.
That setback at the hands of their fellow promotion hopefuls saw the Millers drop out of the top three in League Two, however with two games still in hand a victory against basement club Darlington would keep them within touching distance of the automatic promotion places.
With just Paul Warne (ankle) and Andy Liddell (achilles) the long-term absentees boss Ronnie Moore has no fresh injury worries and following the 3-1 defeat in their last appearance but he will have a selection headache ahead of the trip up to the North East. Goalkeeper Jamie Annerson may not recover in time from his recent knock therefore the on-loan Jonathan Lund should keep his place on the substitute's bench.
The hosts will have had a short rest when they welcome the Millers with their last game falling victim to the weather. Manager Steve Staunton should have no new injuries or suspensions to deal with, however having added former Aberdeen defender Richie Byrne to his squad on transfer deadline day and after seeing his team go down 2-1 to Northampton Town in their last encounter he may opt to re-shuffle his pack.
Since recording the somewhat surprise win against their Yorkshire counterparts a few weeks ago at Don Valley the Quakers have returned to the form which sees them sitting rock bottom of the League having suffered two straight defeats. Seven of their 11 points this season have come on home soil and they will need to rely on that if they are to claw their way to safety. Although they have two games in hand themselves they require 14 points to beat the drop and will take confidence knowing they have beaten their opponents once already this season.
The Millers are currently in fourth position in League Two three points adrift of the automatic promotion places although they have also played two games less than their rivals. They will arrive at the Darlington Arena with optimism having come away with all the spoils in their last two games on the road, and although the defeat to Bournemouth saw them lose a little bit of ground a victory would keep the pressure on the top three.
From 70 matches contested against each other through the years Darlington have the best record with 30 victories to their name. The Millers have recorded a total of 22 wins with the clubs sharing the spoils on 18 occasions. The Quakers 8-1 success during the 1929/30 campaign is the highest margin to date. Last season Darlo claimed a double over their visitors with 1-0 wins both home and away and with the three points they claimed against them in January the Millers will be keen to prevent it from happening again.
