Darlington can complete their own version of the Great Escape by beating Farsley Celtic at Blackwell Meadows on Saturday.

Thanks to a remarkable transformation under Steve Watson and Terry Mitchell in which they’ve won 11 matches since the turn of the year, Quakers’ fate is now in their own hands.

They are sixth-bottom, two points and two places above their West Yorkshire opponents.

A win today would be enough to keep them in National League North and leave Farsley in the bottom four with one game remaining.

Banbury, Gloucester and Bishop’s Stortford are already relegated, although whoever finishes fourth-bottom will be keen to see whether Rushall Olympic finish their ground improvements in time and be relegated instead.

And if fifth-bottom Blyth lose at second-placed Scunthorpe and Darlington win, then Quakers are also guaranteed a finish above the Tynesiders. Blyth face third-placed Brackley next Saturday.

“Saturday’s game will be no different to all of our other games,” said Watson.

“We’ve prepared just as we have for any other game. We had a chat with the players on Thursday before training, and did what we needed to do training-wise to prepare the best we can. Now we need to go out there and execute the plan.

“We’ve worked really hard to get into this position, and we’ve got no intention of taking our foot off the gas now. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

“Both teams need to win, and we’ve got to take our eyes away from everything else that’s going on around us.”

Farsley have won just once in their last 11 matches, and Watson said: “We’ve done our homework on them. I know some of their lads personally – Chris Atkinson, Tom Allen, Dan Stephenson - and I managed Clayton Donaldson at York. There’s a lot of quality and experience there. Both teams need to win, this has got the makings of a good game of football.”

There’s only game left for Quakers after today, and that’s a trip to Chester next Saturday.

Watson added: “There are six more points to play for, and we certainly need three of them. We have to take our minds off the numbers and the various scenarios.

“We’ll approach it with the right team, and put the right performance on. All the background noise has got to be for other people.

“Our players are in a good place, but we’ll be drumming it into them about how difficult this game is going to be. Our players have got to be 100 per cent for 95 or 100 minutes or however long this game is going to be.”

Farsley lost at Peterborough Sports in midweek, three days after beating them at the Citadel. They will include former Darlington defender Danny Ellis and midfielder Chris Atkinson in their squad. Manager Clayton Donaldson, could be on the bench.

There could be at least 2,000 Darlington fans in the ground, and Watson said: “The fans have been fantastic ever since I arrived. We need them behind us one more time.”