[caption id="attachment_13825" align="alignnone" width="226"] Lee Gaskell[/caption]

Ashton United are currently in the bottom half of the table, but have at least one game in hand on most of the sides in the league. Last season they suffered play-off agony, after finishing the league campaign in third place they fell to a home defeat against local rivals Curzon Ashton on penalty kicks. They have picked up ten points from their six home games so far, but have only conceded four goals at Hurst Cross. Chris Hunter remains unavailable for Darlington as he serves the second of his three game suspension, but new signing Anthony Callaghan is included in the squad. Manager Martin Gray said, “We are confident, but it’s another tough mid-week away game, you just have to look at Ramsbottom against Blyth last week. Of course we go into the game confident after Saturday, but it is a tough Ashton side who many forget were in the play-offs last season.” Kick off at Ashton on Tuesday night is 19:45.