Not Taking Darlington For Granted

Darlington may be bottom of League Two, without a win so far this season, but Eddie Howe warns about taking the Leagues bottom side for granted, being quoted in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as saying: "A top-versus-bottom clash is a new experience for us and can only be a positive one. Darlington are going to be a dangerous side. They have brought in a couple of new players and that always freshens things up. With their manager and coaching staff, they will pick up results sooner rather than later and we want to make sure they don't start against us. It always takes time to gel when you are forced to make a lot of changes in personnel. They will be determined to get a positive result so we need to make sure we don't get sloppy and continue to show the same attitude that has served us well this season".

Reflecting back to the game last season, when Howe was in charge for the first time, he goes on to say: "It was a bitter-sweet day. I thought we performed pretty well and it was a real sickener to concede two late goals. There was a feeling of huge disappointment after the game. But we used that disappointment to stay up in the end. It was a good experience because, in some ways, it set the marker. We worked very hard and were unfortunate to come away with nothing. We are certainly going to have to match those work-rate levels again".