STEVE Wilkes will be feeling the tension of a local derby more than most when his Darwen troops welcome Nelson to the Anchor Ground tomorrow.

For Nelson assistant manager Paul Whittaker is the manager of Wilkes' son Louis at Preston North End's school of excellence.

"Hopefully I won't upset him so much tomorrow that he leaves Louis out of the under 16s on Sunday," the Darwen boss said.

But that doesn't mean he's prepared to do rivals Nelson any favours.

"The last two results we've had have given us a bit of confidence and we'll be looking to stay on a roll," said Wilkes, who has seen his side beat Holker Old Boys and Castleton Gabriels in their last two outings, the latter of which booked them a place in the Division Two Trophy semi-finals.

"We've only lost two out of our last eight games - we've just not won enough of them.

"With Nelson not only being rivals because they are neighbours but rivals in the league, we need to be beating teams like that so we can close the gap on the teams at the top.

"But they are going very well so we have to be on our mettle"

Paul Brown is suspended for Darwen and Andy Heys is sidelined with an ankle injury, but Andy Walsh was hoping to be available for selection, as was Matt Anderton.

Nelson have only lost once in eight league games and drew 1-1 with leaders Formby in their last game on Saturday.