HE still has sleepless nights thinking about the events of Saturday, September 18, 2010.
So Mark Cooper has demanded his Darlington side avoid a repeat against in-form Bath City today, and claim a place in the last 16 of the FA Trophy.
Four months ago in a Blue Square Bet Premier game, the Quakers led 2-0 at Bath with 90 minutes gone.
By the final whistle, they had managed to draw 2-2, and Cooper remains perplexed to this day as to how.
The Darlington boss is continuing to scour the market for new signings, insisting a deal for Marc Bridge-Wilkinson remains a possibility following the capture yesterday of Sheffield Wednesday striker Nathan Modest on loan until the end of the season.
First though, he and his players have some demons to exorcise.
“I’m still having sleepless nights about the league game down there, I really am,” Cooper said.
“I’m still trying to work out what happened. Sometimes there’s no reason for it apart from a little bit of luck and things going the wrong way.
“It’s not something I want to see happen again.”
He added: “There’s no reason why we can’t get to Wembley but I’m sure there’ll be 31 other managers thinking the same thing at the moment.
“You’re three games from Wembley, so if you get through this round and get a good draw again, you’re almost there. Anything can happen.
“In my experience cup runs have been good, and if you can keep winning games confidence rises and the more games we win, the better it is for me.
“We’re not counting our chickens, we’ve got a real tough game against a team who are right up there in the form table.
“I don’t think they’ve lost for a while, won at Newport (County), drew at home with Luton Town.
“So it’s not an easy game but we’re at home and playing pretty well.
“I’m not surprised how well they’ve done since coming up last season, any team that does usually has that momentum.
“I’ve been there myself with Kettering Town, and it’s difficult for people to knock it out of you.”
On Modest, Cooper said: “We’ve been looking for a bit of pace up front to get in behind teams and Nathan will provide that.
“He’s a decent player, he’s very highly-rated by Sheffield Wednesday and we’re hopeful he’ll get a few goals.”
