Part 2 of my look back at Darlington's 1990-91 season, click here for August.
After two goalless games in August, Darlo's first home league game was against Burnley, who brought a lot of fans with them and finally things clicked, a 3-1 win quelling dissent at the outrageous ticket price increase to 4 whole pounds. Full backs McJannet and Gray got goals as did Gary Gill, with what I remember as a fantastic volley over the keeper's head from outside the box.
This was followed by a trip to Blackpool for the return leg of the league cup, my first away game of the season, a rare Tuesday afternoon game due to Blackpool's floodlights not working. A John Borthwick goal gave us the 1-1 draw and we advanced on away goals.
A 2-2 draw at Wallsall was followed by another good home win, 3-0 over Halifax, McJannett (winning goal of the week on "The Back page") and Gill once again, with David Cork chipping in his first of the season as well, and Darlo were up to 4th.
Draws at home to York and away to Wrexham followed before we took on Swindon in the league cup 2nd round. Swindon had won promotion to the first division the year before, only to have it taken away due tfinancial irregularities, but this was still a very big game, and I remember in the car ride home hearing Radio 5 describe it as the shock of the round when we won 3-0. A Frank Gray penalty and two goals from David Cork had surely put the result in doubt before the second leg, though the main thing I remember about the game is Swindon's Dave Bennett, a member of Coventry's 1987 FA cup winning squad having his leg broken in a fairly ugly tackle.
A 1-0 win at Doncaster's crappy ground in front of an impressive turn out of away fans ended the month on a high note, with some fans even musing about a second successive promotion.
Any Darlo fans here, feel free to fill in the blanks in my memory with further details in the comment section. Cheers
Coming soon: October, another trip to Blackpool, and the return leg at Swindon.
Great stuff - can't wait for you to get to the Hereford home game, as it was the first Darlo match I attended...
ReplyDeleteVery nice, Duncan. Can;t help you out with any personal memories, as I spent the year in Czechoslovakia (as it still was). Not easy to get toilet paper or potatoes, let alone match reports from Darlo.
ReplyDelete@broadsexile, Well that puts the pressure on. Hereford game, not sure I remember much about that at all, hopefully you come back in october to share your memories, I still feel like I could write a lot about my first darlo game, grimsby 1987.
ReplyDeleteWas at Walsall, 2-0 up I think, and at Donny behind the bars. David Cork broke from the half-way line to score a 1-on-1.
ReplyDeleteSaint and Greavsie gave us 'performance of the week' for the win against Swindon. The tackle on Bennett by Gill was dreadful, don't think he played football again after that
ReplyDeleteThe Borthwick goal at Blackpool was the first of a few tried and tested set pieces we benefited from for a few weeks early on in the season. He nodded in 3 or 4 from Toman free kicks until someone finally rumbled that plan
Think the game at Walsall was one of the first played at the Bescot Stadium, Tait had what looked like a perfectly good goal not given that would have been the winner. He more than made up for that later in the year scoring the goal of the season against them at Feethams
Had just graduated from Uni and got my first job (plus flat and car) in Manchester. Great base for an exiled Darlo fan to the follow the lads, and I spent a huge amount of my new found wealth travelling to away games. Money wasted? - no chance, its got to be my favourite football year. Keep the series going - really enjoying it so far
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I was also at Doncaster, and now you mention it, I can totally picture that Cork goal in my head.
ReplyDeleteBennett didn't really play again, according to wikipedia, he fought back from this injury, then broke the same leg again 2 games into his comeback, and then that was it.