ALBION ace Gary Hart insists the players and not the boss should be blamed for the wretched run of results.

Manager Jeff Wood came under fire from fans when he substituted Hart's strike partner Richard Barker in Tuesday's fifth straight defeat at home to Cardiff.

The Seagulls' rookie marksman reckons they chose the wrong target.

"It is unfair of everyone to blame the boss," said Hart. "He is working hard, but we are not pulling together as a team.

"Don't blame the manager, we've got to take responsibility."

Nine-goal Hart even tried new boots in a vain bid to end his own drought on Tuesday.

He has gone seven games without scoring but believes tomorrow's home game against nosediving Darlington provides the perfect opportunity for him and the team to get back on track.

"It's starting to nag me and I am getting a bit frustrated," Hart admitted. "I hadn't scored for six games when we went to Darlington and won 2-1, so hopefully we can do that again."

Wood is without the suspended Andy Arnott and Michael Bennett tomorrow. That means Tony Browne is recalled to the squad, while youth team midfielder Danny Davis is likely to be on the bench.

Hart has not given up hope of a late assault for a play-off place, even though Albion have slipped to four points adrift and all of the sides above them, except Peterborough, have matches in hand.

"We went through exactly the same patch as this earlier in the season, so it should come right again," he said. "It's not out of reach yet. If we pull five games together we will be right back in there."

Albion (from): Ormerod; Culverhouse, Sturgess, Browne, Ryan, Hobson, Storer, Armstrong, Hart, Barker, Nicholls, Davies, D. Davis, Allan, Ansah, Smith.

Darlington (from): Preece; Brumwell, Liddle, Tutill, Bennett, Barnard, Naylor, Atkinson, Oliver, Gabiadini, Duffield, Costa, Gaughan, Reed.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.