Bridge-Wilkinson has made four appearances on loan at Darlington

Darlington manager Mark Cooper says he would like to extend the loan spell of Carlisle United midfielder Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, which ends on Saturday.

Bridge-Wilkinson, 31, has impressed at the Arena since making the switch, scoring once in four appearances for the Quakers.

"We're going to try everything we can [to keep him]," Cooper told BBC Tees.

"He might want to try to get into Carlisle's team, but hopefully we've done enough to persuade him to stay."

The Coventry-born midfielder began his career with Derby County and lists Carlisle, Port Vale, Stockport and Bradford among the clubs he has represented in his 13-year career thus far.

Bridge-Wilkinson started Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Tamworth - the Quakers' fourth win on the bounce - which was played out in front of a season's best home attendance of 2,625.

Danny Hone's first half header was enough to seal the win, although his central defensive partner Liam Hatch was withdrawn late on with an injury.

"It was just a kick so he'll be fine," Cooper added.

"We'll let the players have a bit of a rest now, they've deserved it.

"I'm just a little bit disappointed that we had a bigger crowd and we couldn't quite put on an entertaining show.

"But it was always going to be difficult after Saturday. There were too many long balls, which we are trying to make sure doesn't happen, but when players are tired it's the easy option.

"The reason we didn't play well enough was because we made too many bad decisions when we had the football."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version