IT comes too soon for the ‘Little Fella’ and too late for Didier Digard – but Darlington’s new goal hero James Walshaw is relishing today’s pre-season friendly against Middlesbrough.

And he’s already started bonding with team-mates over a sing-song and a rollercoaster ride.

The 27-year-old has joined the Quakers from Conference North side Guiseley, and opened his account with a brace in Wednesday’s warm-up game at Brackley Town.

That concluded a mini-tour of the south of England which also featured a trip to Thorpe Park, new signings introducing themselves to the squad with a song and – amid injuries to eight first-team seniors – the appearance of one Mark Cooper against Staines Town.

“The 42-year-old apprentice still showed some of the younger lads how to keep the ball and pass,” said the manager himself, who was last night trying to land Northampton Town striker Tadhg Purcell on loan, and Walshaw agreed.

“I thought that was brilliant,” he said. “He’s still a decent player and did really well, and it created a lot of banter with the lads as well.

“It was nice for me to get a couple of goals against Brackley as well. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how I’ve settled into things. I think my fitness levels have been OK.

“It’s going to be a difficult game (against Boro), they’ll come and keep the ball. It’ll be a fitness exercise for us in terms of chasing the ball.

“When we do get it we have to look after it and show a bit of quality.

“But I’m looking forward to it, there should be a decent crowd and it should be a good game for the fans. It’s another good exercise for us in terms of our overall build-up to the start of the season.”

And for good or bad, it means Darlington won’t have to face Juninho, still affectionately known as the 'Little Fella' on Teesside.

The Brazilian midfielder will play a guest cameo role in Boro’s friendly against PSV Eindhoven next Friday, when he could take the place of Digard.

The Frenchman – who joined the Teessiders for £4.5 million three years ago – has spent the last 18 months on loan at Nice, and has now completed a permanent move to the Le Championnat outfit.

Tony Mowbray had welcomed the midfielder back into the fold during pre-season, insisting he did have a future on Teesside, and said the same of Dutch forward Marvin Emnes.

But while Digard departs, Emnes is set to make his first appearance of the summer at the Northern Echo Arena this afternoon (3pm) after overcoming a hip flexor problem. “Hopefully we’ll be able to give a few more players 90 minutes,” Mowbray said. “Not many of the lads have had a full 90 minutes under their belts yet. We’ll try to keep the lads who start the game out on the pitch for as long as possible.

“We’ll try and dovetail that with Tuesday’s game at Carlisle (United) so that as many players as possible go into the game against PSV playing as close to 90 minutes as they can.”

Among those, Seb Hines will also come into contention having recovered from jaw and ankle injuries to play in Wednesday’s reserve-team friendly at Harrogate Town.

And the 23-year-old is relishing the forthcoming campaign.

“All the lads now are just really excited,” he said. “We’re definitely going to be pushing for promotion and we’ve shown we can match any team in this league when we’re at our best.

“We don’t want to be in that bottom four fighting relegation, we want to be at the top. It’s definitely going to be exciting next year.

“We finished the season high in confidence and we can take that into next year and get to the top.”