DARLINGTON will include a new striker when they go to Kettering this afternoon.

Quakers have signed Jacob Blyth from Bradford Park Avenue on loan for the rest of the season, and he will go straight into their squad as they aim to recover from Tuesday night’s 3-1 humbling at Farsley Celtic.

Thirty-year-old Blyth has played at various levels of the game, starting with Leicester City in their Championship days, and going on to play for Burton Albion, Northampton and Motherwell amongst others, before playing for Chorley, for whom he scored the winner against Quakers in the league at Victory Park last season.

He switched to Bradford during the summer, and has now agreed to go out on loan to Quakers, who have been looking for a big striker since Mark Beck moved to Solihull in January.

Manager Alun Armstrong said: “Jacob will give us an extra option up front, we’ve been looking for a big striker to help us mix the game up.

“He’s got plenty of experience at different levels of the game and hopefully that will help us over the rest of the season. He was very keen to join us.”

Armstrong will be looking for a much-improved performance at Latimer Park following the 3-1 defeat at Farsley in midweek, when Quakers gave away three sloppy goals to leave them fifth in the table when they could have climbed above Brackley into fourth.

As it is, they’re still three points ahead of the chasing pack, which is headed by Gloucester.

“This will be a similar game to Farsley on Tuesday night,” said Armstrong.

“I’ve told the players that they’re going to come up against the same style of play again, and they’ve got to deal with it.

“They’ve got to play our game, and not get sucked into what the opposition are doing, which is what we did on Tuesday.

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“Kettering is a difficult place to go to, but we’ve got to make sure that we’re better than them.”

Apart from the 3-0 win over Hereford last Saturday, Quakers’ defence has leaked goals alarmingly in recent matches, especially from winning positions.

“It didn’t seem to mean enough to some of them for me on Tuesday, and that’s what I’m concerned about,” said Armstrong.

“At half time on Tuesday, I told them to stop letting people run at them, and instead to go and make Farsley do something with the ball.

“The coaching staff can only do so much, it’s so annoying when there’s a performance like Tuesday’s.

“A few months ago, we had people attacking the ball and being first, and now that isn’t happening.

“There’s nothing complicated about it, they’ve just got to deal with the ball coming into the box. Everybody is standing and waiting for somebody else to do something.

“If anyone has more aggression than you, then they will win the game if you’re not doing the basics right.

“The whole of the back four was chalk and cheese on Tuesday compared to the win over Hereford, so do I change personnel again? We didn’t ask them to do anything different – how many times do we continue doing the work with them and telling them how to play the game?

“These are young lads wanting to get a foothold in the game at a higher level and they’re not good enough. They’ve got to learn quickly.”

Central defender Jake Lawlor has recovered from a back injury and is included in the squad, as is on loan defender Jake Cooper, who has extended his loan with Quakers until the end of the season.

Cooper scored at Kettering on his last visit there, as did Jack Lambert, but he will be missing because of injury along with defender Kallum Griffiths.