With thanks to the Darlo Uncovered Forum, I just stumbled across this, highlights of the final game that clinched the title. The first goal wasn't exactly as I remembered, I think in my head that goal and the early chance where Cork hit the bar had got mixed up.
But just look at the crowd in the south stand, absolutely packed, and the celebratory pitch invasion? Gold.
Showing posts with label Football league. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Football league. Show all posts
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. May
The last instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December January February March and April. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
Last away game, penultimate game of the season, Scunthorpe away. The symmetry was perfect, two years after the exact same fixture had seen Darlington relegated to the Vauxhall Conference, we returned with the chance for the ultimate redemption of clinching promotion. The away end was now all seater and it was pretty much packed with Darlo fans. It didn't work out as they hoped, of course it didn't it was Scunthorpe away. Darlo went 1-0 down, pulled a goal back with a Frank Gray penalty, but ended up having a goal disallowed and losing 2-1, and with repeated pitch invasions causing problems as well.
It all set up a nervous last game at home to Rochdale, with 5 teams still in with a chance of finishing top, Darlo knew a win would clinch the title, but a loss could see them drop into the playoffs. There was of course a big crowd and I ended up at the front against the advertising boards rather than my usual spot half way up the tin shed terrace.
An early goal was what was needed to calm the nerves and it arrived within 10 minutes, David Cork getting his first goal in 7 games, finding space in the box from a Frank Gray free kick and volleying the ball home. Gray himself got the second with a penalty in front of the tin shed and from then the result was never in doubt. The message came over the tannoy to stay off the pitch and the team would do a lap of honour with the trophy, but that was laughed at, and towards the end people started going over the boards and creeping further and further on to the pitch.
The final whistle eventually blew and the inevitable full scale pitch invasion happened. I was part of that and ended up in front of the main stand, at one point sitting on the shoulders of a friend and picking out my sister and freind in the East stand. Eventually the players came up to the Director's box, Kevan Smith got to lift another trophy, Dick Corden rubbed his hand at the big novelty cheque. For the second straight year, fans honoured an injured defender, last year Jimmy Willis, this year David Corner, it was all very emotional. The next day, for the second straight year, Kevan Smith took the trophy to see Roger Tames on 'the Back Page'. Hartlepool also won promotion in 3rd place, but it was just sweeter than when they finally did something good, we went two better.
Brian Little went on to Leicester where he took a team that just avoided relegation and got them to the playoffs three straight years, finally winning promotion to the Premier league, Jimmy Willis went with him and won the Man of the Match award in that playoff final. Little then moved on to Aston Villa and took them to a 4th place finish and a League cup trophy, before for whatever reason it all started to go wrong, eventually being fired form Villa, and then taking other jobs further and further down the league's without ever recapturing the same success.
Frank Gray took over from Little, and most of the team stayed together but the third division was a step too far, it didn't work out and Gray was fired within his first year as Darlo finished last and were relegated back down. As at every other moment of success in Darlo's history, it proved fleeting and now we're right back where this great team started, in the Conference.
Last away game, penultimate game of the season, Scunthorpe away. The symmetry was perfect, two years after the exact same fixture had seen Darlington relegated to the Vauxhall Conference, we returned with the chance for the ultimate redemption of clinching promotion. The away end was now all seater and it was pretty much packed with Darlo fans. It didn't work out as they hoped, of course it didn't it was Scunthorpe away. Darlo went 1-0 down, pulled a goal back with a Frank Gray penalty, but ended up having a goal disallowed and losing 2-1, and with repeated pitch invasions causing problems as well.
It all set up a nervous last game at home to Rochdale, with 5 teams still in with a chance of finishing top, Darlo knew a win would clinch the title, but a loss could see them drop into the playoffs. There was of course a big crowd and I ended up at the front against the advertising boards rather than my usual spot half way up the tin shed terrace.
An early goal was what was needed to calm the nerves and it arrived within 10 minutes, David Cork getting his first goal in 7 games, finding space in the box from a Frank Gray free kick and volleying the ball home. Gray himself got the second with a penalty in front of the tin shed and from then the result was never in doubt. The message came over the tannoy to stay off the pitch and the team would do a lap of honour with the trophy, but that was laughed at, and towards the end people started going over the boards and creeping further and further on to the pitch.
The final whistle eventually blew and the inevitable full scale pitch invasion happened. I was part of that and ended up in front of the main stand, at one point sitting on the shoulders of a friend and picking out my sister and freind in the East stand. Eventually the players came up to the Director's box, Kevan Smith got to lift another trophy, Dick Corden rubbed his hand at the big novelty cheque. For the second straight year, fans honoured an injured defender, last year Jimmy Willis, this year David Corner, it was all very emotional. The next day, for the second straight year, Kevan Smith took the trophy to see Roger Tames on 'the Back Page'. Hartlepool also won promotion in 3rd place, but it was just sweeter than when they finally did something good, we went two better.
Brian Little went on to Leicester where he took a team that just avoided relegation and got them to the playoffs three straight years, finally winning promotion to the Premier league, Jimmy Willis went with him and won the Man of the Match award in that playoff final. Little then moved on to Aston Villa and took them to a 4th place finish and a League cup trophy, before for whatever reason it all started to go wrong, eventually being fired form Villa, and then taking other jobs further and further down the league's without ever recapturing the same success.
Frank Gray took over from Little, and most of the team stayed together but the third division was a step too far, it didn't work out and Gray was fired within his first year as Darlo finished last and were relegated back down. As at every other moment of success in Darlo's history, it proved fleeting and now we're right back where this great team started, in the Conference.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. April
The latest instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December January February and March. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
Darlington kind of limped into April, winning only 1 of their last 6 games, and seeing their lead at the top of the table shrink slightly, but helped by other top teams like Burnley, Torquay and Northampton also struggling, they were still at the top.
April started with an Easter Monday trip to Chesterfield where I remember the Mansfield fanzine follow the yellow brick road selling copies to the away fans. It was an entertaining game and despite Darlo having to replace Gary Gill with Michael Trotter, they scored twice with goals from John Borthwick and David Cork, but that was only good enough for another draw.
That was followed up with a couple of home games, and remarkably despite being top of the table, there were grumblings at the time about the lack of entertainment and dull style of play. First up was Scarborough, and Darlo came away with three points, winning 2-1 with Andy Toman and Borthwick again providing the goals. Then a Tuesday night game against Lincoln was another disappointing 2 points dropped, Gary Gill scoring in a 1-1 tie.
We did get a crucial three points at Cardiff the next week thanks to an own goal, but could only get another draw at home against Maidstone after that, Toman scoring again in a 1-1 tie in front of over 4,000. That was a standard crowd for Darlo to finish the season off after February's great run.
All these draws meant what had been a big lead at the top of the table had dwindled to the point where automatic promotion was no longer a certainty, and we ended April by heading to Northampton. The Cobblers had had a very good season but it had fallen apart to the point where they were desperate for a result to stay in the playoff picture, so it was a big game for both sides and there was a very big contingent of nervous Darlo fans. We had no reason to be as Darlo absolutely destroyed Northampton in the first half.
Michael Trotter and John Borthwick scored two early goals, before Mitch Cook then scored one of the best goals I can remember from a Darlo player. From a Northampton attack, Prudhoe threw the ball out to Toman who took the ball forward before knocking it down the right wing to McJannett who crossed it to the left side of the box where Mitch Cook volleyed it first time back across the goalie into the net. Less than 10 seconds from Prudhoe to the goal, and finished off by a volley that would have been a great goal even without the impressive build up.
Disbelief on the terrace turned to relief and comfort as Darlo just shut up shop and very smoothly saw out the seconf half for the 3-0 win that all but secured a promotion spot. Celebrations of players and management on the pitch very much recalled the scenes at a similar point of the Vauxhall Conference winning season, when a win away at Stafford put Darlo within sight of the championship. With two games left, Darlo would need at least one win to secure the title, but had done just enough to get themselves to the brink of promotion.
Next up: May. Scunthorpe away, what could possibly go wrong with that? and finally, E-I-E-I-E-I-O, up the football league we go.
Darlington kind of limped into April, winning only 1 of their last 6 games, and seeing their lead at the top of the table shrink slightly, but helped by other top teams like Burnley, Torquay and Northampton also struggling, they were still at the top.
April started with an Easter Monday trip to Chesterfield where I remember the Mansfield fanzine follow the yellow brick road selling copies to the away fans. It was an entertaining game and despite Darlo having to replace Gary Gill with Michael Trotter, they scored twice with goals from John Borthwick and David Cork, but that was only good enough for another draw.
That was followed up with a couple of home games, and remarkably despite being top of the table, there were grumblings at the time about the lack of entertainment and dull style of play. First up was Scarborough, and Darlo came away with three points, winning 2-1 with Andy Toman and Borthwick again providing the goals. Then a Tuesday night game against Lincoln was another disappointing 2 points dropped, Gary Gill scoring in a 1-1 tie.
We did get a crucial three points at Cardiff the next week thanks to an own goal, but could only get another draw at home against Maidstone after that, Toman scoring again in a 1-1 tie in front of over 4,000. That was a standard crowd for Darlo to finish the season off after February's great run.
All these draws meant what had been a big lead at the top of the table had dwindled to the point where automatic promotion was no longer a certainty, and we ended April by heading to Northampton. The Cobblers had had a very good season but it had fallen apart to the point where they were desperate for a result to stay in the playoff picture, so it was a big game for both sides and there was a very big contingent of nervous Darlo fans. We had no reason to be as Darlo absolutely destroyed Northampton in the first half.
Michael Trotter and John Borthwick scored two early goals, before Mitch Cook then scored one of the best goals I can remember from a Darlo player. From a Northampton attack, Prudhoe threw the ball out to Toman who took the ball forward before knocking it down the right wing to McJannett who crossed it to the left side of the box where Mitch Cook volleyed it first time back across the goalie into the net. Less than 10 seconds from Prudhoe to the goal, and finished off by a volley that would have been a great goal even without the impressive build up.
Disbelief on the terrace turned to relief and comfort as Darlo just shut up shop and very smoothly saw out the seconf half for the 3-0 win that all but secured a promotion spot. Celebrations of players and management on the pitch very much recalled the scenes at a similar point of the Vauxhall Conference winning season, when a win away at Stafford put Darlo within sight of the championship. With two games left, Darlo would need at least one win to secure the title, but had done just enough to get themselves to the brink of promotion.
Next up: May. Scunthorpe away, what could possibly go wrong with that? and finally, E-I-E-I-E-I-O, up the football league we go.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. March
The latest instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December January and February. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
Darlo came into March on a great run, undefeated and not scored against in all of February, and it was a very busy month, playing 8 games, a lot of them against other promotion chasing sides. They kept the winning run and clean sheet streak going with another win in their first game of the month against Stockport County, 6'7" Kevin Francis et al. This was quite possibly the best game Steve Mardenborough had for us, he played really well, had several chances, and ended up scoring the only goal of the game, topped off with a fabulous run/jump/dance celebration.
Next up was a Tuesday night home game against Wallsall, and yet another clean sheet for Mark Prudhoe. Gary Gill was back after missing a couple of games, and Lee Ellison was back again as John Borthwick's partner, but the glory and the only goal in this game went to Mick Tait. It's probably one of those things that my memory has embellished over time, but I remember it as him winning the ball at about the half way line, taking a couple of touches and a few yards forward before belting it from about 40 yards out and just inside the post in front of the Tin Shed. According to my Mother, my reaction was simply an astounded "Fucking Hell". It probably wasn't actually as good as I remember it now, but it's in the top 3 Feethams goals for me (Kevan Smith vs Cheltenham, Lee Ellison vs Hartlepool) and maybe it's for the best that it's not out there on youtube to make it less special.
By now Darlo had built a healthy lead at the top of the table, which is good because they were about to enter a fairly rough stretch, starting at Torquay where they finally let in a goal, and also let in a last minute winner, losing 2-1, with Ellison getting the goal. The goalless streak, stretching over 7 full games was a club record at the time, and presumably still is, a fitting tribute to a great goalie and defence.
Darlo set off on another unbeaten run, starting with another top of the table clash, this time in front of over 8,000 at Peterborough, and it ended in a 2-2 draw, Smith and David Cork with the goals. It had been over 2 months since Cork had been a regular in the team, but he'd play every game from this point on.
Next up was two home games against more of the top teams, Doncaster Rovers were first up and Darlo struggled, but got a 1-1 draw, Toman scoring and Smith with an own goal, but we still had an 8 point lead as other teams around us also struggled. That was followed by another 1-1 game, against Blackpool, Smith scoring again, and Prudhoe having another great game, I remember one diving reflex save from a header being particularly impresssive.
The run of draws continued as a Les McJannett goal got us a 1-1 draw at Hereford, before we finally got back to winning ways in the last game of the month at home against Aldershot. A 3-1 win sounds like it would be one of the better games, but it was one of the dullest games I can ever remember watching. Aldershot were a very poor team, and on the verge of going out of businesss, but we couldn't really take advantage and needed two Frank Gray penalties, as well as a Borthwick goal to get the three points. That game saw the debut of Mitch Cook, in his second go round with Darlo, a replacement for Paul Emson who we shipped off to Kettering. I'm fairly certain it was very early in this game, if not the first time the ball came to him that he went to kick the ball, completely missed and fell over. A cult hero was born, at least in my house, and we ended up naming our dog in his honour.
Coming up: April, the stumble towards the finish line continues, then that game at Northampton.
Darlo came into March on a great run, undefeated and not scored against in all of February, and it was a very busy month, playing 8 games, a lot of them against other promotion chasing sides. They kept the winning run and clean sheet streak going with another win in their first game of the month against Stockport County, 6'7" Kevin Francis et al. This was quite possibly the best game Steve Mardenborough had for us, he played really well, had several chances, and ended up scoring the only goal of the game, topped off with a fabulous run/jump/dance celebration.
Next up was a Tuesday night home game against Wallsall, and yet another clean sheet for Mark Prudhoe. Gary Gill was back after missing a couple of games, and Lee Ellison was back again as John Borthwick's partner, but the glory and the only goal in this game went to Mick Tait. It's probably one of those things that my memory has embellished over time, but I remember it as him winning the ball at about the half way line, taking a couple of touches and a few yards forward before belting it from about 40 yards out and just inside the post in front of the Tin Shed. According to my Mother, my reaction was simply an astounded "Fucking Hell". It probably wasn't actually as good as I remember it now, but it's in the top 3 Feethams goals for me (Kevan Smith vs Cheltenham, Lee Ellison vs Hartlepool) and maybe it's for the best that it's not out there on youtube to make it less special.
By now Darlo had built a healthy lead at the top of the table, which is good because they were about to enter a fairly rough stretch, starting at Torquay where they finally let in a goal, and also let in a last minute winner, losing 2-1, with Ellison getting the goal. The goalless streak, stretching over 7 full games was a club record at the time, and presumably still is, a fitting tribute to a great goalie and defence.
Darlo set off on another unbeaten run, starting with another top of the table clash, this time in front of over 8,000 at Peterborough, and it ended in a 2-2 draw, Smith and David Cork with the goals. It had been over 2 months since Cork had been a regular in the team, but he'd play every game from this point on.
Next up was two home games against more of the top teams, Doncaster Rovers were first up and Darlo struggled, but got a 1-1 draw, Toman scoring and Smith with an own goal, but we still had an 8 point lead as other teams around us also struggled. That was followed by another 1-1 game, against Blackpool, Smith scoring again, and Prudhoe having another great game, I remember one diving reflex save from a header being particularly impresssive.
The run of draws continued as a Les McJannett goal got us a 1-1 draw at Hereford, before we finally got back to winning ways in the last game of the month at home against Aldershot. A 3-1 win sounds like it would be one of the better games, but it was one of the dullest games I can ever remember watching. Aldershot were a very poor team, and on the verge of going out of businesss, but we couldn't really take advantage and needed two Frank Gray penalties, as well as a Borthwick goal to get the three points. That game saw the debut of Mitch Cook, in his second go round with Darlo, a replacement for Paul Emson who we shipped off to Kettering. I'm fairly certain it was very early in this game, if not the first time the ball came to him that he went to kick the ball, completely missed and fell over. A cult hero was born, at least in my house, and we ended up naming our dog in his honour.
Coming up: April, the stumble towards the finish line continues, then that game at Northampton.
Friday, February 18, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. February.
The latest instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December and January. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
With Brian Little's spurning of Birmingham's advances providing welcome relief and renewed optimism after a 4 game winless streak, Darlington's first game in February was at York City, a chance for revenge after earlier losses in the FA Cup and Leyland Daf Trophy. Steve Mardenborough started in place of Drew Coverdale, John Borthwick got the winner, York's Nigel Pepper was sent off, his incredible 3rd red card against Darlo of the season, and we came away with a 1-0 win. This was followed by a Tuesday night home game against struggling Wrexham, a pretty dull game which ended with another 1-0 win, Gary Gill with the goal.
We then had two weeks without a game, before taking on Aldershot in the match re-arranged from boxing day. With Mick Tait suspended, it was a rare start for Gary Coatsworth, and he helped keep another clean sheet. Goals from Borthwick and Lee Ellison, who missed a couple of easy chances that could have given him a first half hat-trick secured our third straight win, 2-0 and led to Mark Prudhoe leading "We are top of the league" chants with the away fans after the game.
If his talent and personality had endeared him to Darlo supporters, it was the next game, away at Hartlepool, that really sealed Prudhoe's status as fan favourite and club legend. As well as Darlo up at the top of the table, the Monkey Hangers were also doing well, so for one of the few times in history, there were promotion implications for both sides to add to the usual hostility and bad blood. Tait was back, but Andy Toman was still suspended and Hartlepool dominated but just could not find a way past Prudhoe who made save after save, many of them of the spectacular variety and we escaped with a 0-0 draw.
The month ended with a trip to Carlisle, and Phil Linacre was back from injury and straight away back into his goalscoring form from January, he got one, as did Borthwick, and the defence got another clean sheet, a 2-0 win finishing off one of the most successful month's in club history, 5 games, 4 away from home, 13 points, 0 goals conceded, manager of the month for Brian Little and a solid lead at the top of the table, not bad at all.
Sad news at this time though was the forced retirement of David Corner, a huge part of our Conference success the season before, he battled injuries all season before finally having to call it quits.
As always, feel free to add further details or memories in the comments section.
Coming up, March: We finally let some goals in, and start drawing a lot.
With Brian Little's spurning of Birmingham's advances providing welcome relief and renewed optimism after a 4 game winless streak, Darlington's first game in February was at York City, a chance for revenge after earlier losses in the FA Cup and Leyland Daf Trophy. Steve Mardenborough started in place of Drew Coverdale, John Borthwick got the winner, York's Nigel Pepper was sent off, his incredible 3rd red card against Darlo of the season, and we came away with a 1-0 win. This was followed by a Tuesday night home game against struggling Wrexham, a pretty dull game which ended with another 1-0 win, Gary Gill with the goal.
We then had two weeks without a game, before taking on Aldershot in the match re-arranged from boxing day. With Mick Tait suspended, it was a rare start for Gary Coatsworth, and he helped keep another clean sheet. Goals from Borthwick and Lee Ellison, who missed a couple of easy chances that could have given him a first half hat-trick secured our third straight win, 2-0 and led to Mark Prudhoe leading "We are top of the league" chants with the away fans after the game.
If his talent and personality had endeared him to Darlo supporters, it was the next game, away at Hartlepool, that really sealed Prudhoe's status as fan favourite and club legend. As well as Darlo up at the top of the table, the Monkey Hangers were also doing well, so for one of the few times in history, there were promotion implications for both sides to add to the usual hostility and bad blood. Tait was back, but Andy Toman was still suspended and Hartlepool dominated but just could not find a way past Prudhoe who made save after save, many of them of the spectacular variety and we escaped with a 0-0 draw.
The month ended with a trip to Carlisle, and Phil Linacre was back from injury and straight away back into his goalscoring form from January, he got one, as did Borthwick, and the defence got another clean sheet, a 2-0 win finishing off one of the most successful month's in club history, 5 games, 4 away from home, 13 points, 0 goals conceded, manager of the month for Brian Little and a solid lead at the top of the table, not bad at all.
Sad news at this time though was the forced retirement of David Corner, a huge part of our Conference success the season before, he battled injuries all season before finally having to call it quits.
As always, feel free to add further details or memories in the comments section.
Coming up, March: We finally let some goals in, and start drawing a lot.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Sweet FA Cup, round 4.
Once again it's FA Cup week in England, with round 4 happening this weekend. Non-League clubs didn't fare too well in round 3, only one of them surviving, but League Two did the small clubs proud, with 4 of them still going and providing the best hope for continued romance and magic and all that stuff the FA cup gets by on now that it's not really as glamorous as it was for the big clubs.
On paper Torquay have the best chance of advancing to round 5, as they play the only non-league team still left, Crawley Town. Crawley aren't one of the heart warming non-league clubs though, they're currently in the middle of "project promotion" that has seen them outspend all of League Two combined and which to be fair, probably will see them win promotion this year, so I'm fully behind Torquay here. Stevenage are also at home, aginst Championship club Reading, and after beating Newcastle in the 3rd round, Stevenage will definitely fancy their chances.
Hereford, who are on a tear recently, 5 straight wins in all competitions and pulling themselves out of the League two relegation zone, have an away game against Sheffield Wednesday, who are a big club in name only, and currently in League One, so Hereford definitely have a chance. Probably the toughest draw for the League Two clubs is Burton Albion who have to go to Burnley after not having played a game since knocking Middlesbrough out 3 weeks ago, since when top scorer Shaun Harrad was transferred away.
Other potential upsets involve the two big Manchester Clubs, both away to League One teams, Man Utd having to take on Southampton while Man City go to Notts County.
It's getting to the stage where there's few teams left for the neutral to really get behind, hopefully a few of these can make it to the next round.
Edit: Well that didn't really work out did it? All 4 league Two clubs lost, and bloody Crawley get an away game at Man Utd in the 5th round, I genuinely don't know who I want to win that one.
On paper Torquay have the best chance of advancing to round 5, as they play the only non-league team still left, Crawley Town. Crawley aren't one of the heart warming non-league clubs though, they're currently in the middle of "project promotion" that has seen them outspend all of League Two combined and which to be fair, probably will see them win promotion this year, so I'm fully behind Torquay here. Stevenage are also at home, aginst Championship club Reading, and after beating Newcastle in the 3rd round, Stevenage will definitely fancy their chances.
Hereford, who are on a tear recently, 5 straight wins in all competitions and pulling themselves out of the League two relegation zone, have an away game against Sheffield Wednesday, who are a big club in name only, and currently in League One, so Hereford definitely have a chance. Probably the toughest draw for the League Two clubs is Burton Albion who have to go to Burnley after not having played a game since knocking Middlesbrough out 3 weeks ago, since when top scorer Shaun Harrad was transferred away.
Other potential upsets involve the two big Manchester Clubs, both away to League One teams, Man Utd having to take on Southampton while Man City go to Notts County.
It's getting to the stage where there's few teams left for the neutral to really get behind, hopefully a few of these can make it to the next round.
Edit: Well that didn't really work out did it? All 4 league Two clubs lost, and bloody Crawley get an away game at Man Utd in the 5th round, I genuinely don't know who I want to win that one.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Division 5? How 25 years of automatic promotion/relegation has changed the Conference. Part 2
This is the 25th season since automatic promotion and relegation was introduced between Division 4 and the Conference for the 1986-87 season (for the sake of consistency and clarity, that’s how I’ll be referring to the divisions throughout this article, Division three, League two, random sponsors, bite me!). So this seems like a good time to take a closer look at how this has altered football at this level, and the difference in the success of relegated and promoted teams, and how that’s changed over the 25 years. For part 1, looking at the changes at conference level, click here. In this second instalment, I focus on the promoted sides, and how Division 4 has changed over the years.
From 1958 when Divisions 3 and 4 were created out of the old Division 3 North and South until 1986, Division 4 was a fairly sleepy stagnant division with many perennially bad teams, where the worst of the ultimate closed shop old mens club could comfortably and unambitiously relax. Relegation existed, but the re-election process made sure it was a very rare threat, with the bottom 4 teams future decided by a vote among the other Football league clubs. Much mutual back scratching made sure that only 6 teams were ever replaced by non-League teams, and one of those, Accrington Stanley, actually resigned due to financial hardships rather than being voted out.
Depending on where a team was situated geographically, it could be as bad as it wanted and not really have to worry, Bradford Park Avenue for example had to finish bottom three times in a row before finally geting voted out, whereas in 1972, Barrow, all the way up there in the North-West were voted out a mere two years after being relegated to Division 4 and despite finishing 8 points ahead of Crewe Alexandra who finished botttom that year.
What this meant was that for a lot of teams, there was no real incentive to improve and they could trundle along, just get by really, with no real threat to their existence. It doesn't come as a surprise that the few teams that were elected into the league all had very early success, 4 of the 6 teams making it to the second division within their first 8 years. Now, with two teams relegated every year, the worst clubs can't continue being bad. Relegation has often been a wake up call, with teams coming back more competitive and in better financial health. There are currently 20 teams in the Football League that have come up via promotion since 1987, 14 in the old Division 4, 5 in Division 3 and 1 in Division 2. As in part 1, this can be broken down into 4 seperate phases.
1987-93
Seven teams were lost to Division 4 in this period, unfortunately three of them went out of business all together, but of the others, three won promotion back almost immediately, Lincoln City and Darlington at the first attempt, Colchester United in their second season, and they all seemed much better for the experience and the chance to regroup. Including those 3, 6 of the 7 promoted teams adapted comfortably to Division 4, all finishing their first season in the top half of the table, and 3 out of the 7 won promotion to Division 3 by their second season. The other promoted team, Maidstone United, made the playoffs in their first year, but soon became one of the three bankrupt teams, so only 3 brand new members were left at the end of this period.
1994-96
No-one was promoted during these three years due to the Conference champions' grounds not being up to Football League standards, and this period of calm, with Division 4 not losing any of it's weaker teams, and the Conference retaining it's stronger teams set the stage for the next period.
1997-2002
During this period, only one of the promoted teams was a returnee, Halifax Town who were relegated again after 3 years, and the relative weakness of the Conference teams promoted saw three of the five relegated back, though they all lasted 5 years, and Rushden and Diamonds did get promoted to Division 3 for one season. The two other teams promoted in this period, Macclesfield and Cheltenham Town are both still going strong, and have both had spells in division 3 as well.
Of the six teams relegated during this time, none of them won promotion back, meaning that for the first time, there was a now a good number of "big" clubs in the Conference fighting for promotion, creating the competition that would lead to the success we'd see from the promoted teams in the next few years.
2003-Present
2002-03 saw the promotion/relegation spots increased to 2, and the results since have been a real testament to the success of this 25 year experiment. Out of the 16 promoted teams, 9 were returning after relegation with 7 teams making their Football League bow, but almost all of them have been very succesful. Only Chester City have returned to Non-League status, mainly due to financial issues that dated back to the 1990's.
If Chester were the exception to the rule, Doncaster Rovers are perhaps the best ambassadors for how a club can be turned around. They had been relegated to the Conference in 1998 after finances had got so bad the Chariman tried to burn the main stand down for the insurance money in 1995. Under new ownership, they settled and returned to the Football League in 2003, immediately won Division 4, moved to a new stadium in 2006, won the Johnstone's Paint trophy in 2007 and won promotion to the second tier in 2008 where they have remained since.
Carlisle United and Exeter City are other clubs who have come back stronger and currently reside in Division 3, accompanied by traditional Conference clubs Yeovil Town and Dagenham & Redbridge. Hereford United also had a year at that level, three other clubs made the Division 4 playoffs and the rest have settled nicely into life at this level.
The Conference is proving the ideal place for troubled clubs to rehabilitate themselves. Though the number of former Football League clubs is increasing, it is still below half the division, so all but the worst off clubs have been able to consolidate, and then when more stable take advantage of their infrastructure and fanbase to outmuscle smaller traditionally non-league clubs, as the Conference table stands right now, the 9 teams with recent Football League experience are all in the top 14. That there are now 9 teams competing for the two promotion spots, along with non-league teams enjoying their best days, like Fleetwood Town or Crawley means there are no weak teams coming up. Though I wouldn't call for the Conference to be converted into a Division 5, there are still too many smaller clubs for who that would be a step too far, either financially or due to ground regulations, It could be time to look at expanding those two promotion spots to three.
Coming up:
Part 3: I get all "Soccernomics" with a more stats based look at how promoted and relegated teams have done.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Division 5? How 25 years of automatic promotion/relegation has changed the Conference. Part 1.
This is the 25th season since automatic promotion and relegation was introduced between Division 4 and the Conference for the 1986-87 season (for the sake of consistency and clarity, that’s how I’ll be referring to the divisions throughout this article, Division three, League two, random sponsors, bite me!). So this seems like a good time to take a closer look at how this has altered football at this level, and the difference in the success of relegated and promoted teams, and how that’s changed over the 25 years. In this first instalment, I focus on the relegated sides, the Conference and how it's developed over the years.
Looking at the development of the Conference, being a Darlington supporter gives a unique perspective, with Darlo one of the few teams to have 2 spells in the Conference, one back in 1989/90 and another one started just this season. It’s easy to see the biggest difference, and that’s the quality of the teams in the Conference. Getting promoted to Division 4 is a much tougher proposition now than in the first few years since automatic promotion/relegation was introduced.
Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, the Conference was full of amateur or semi-professional sides, so a relegated team that maintained it’s full professional status was at an enormous advantage, and was considered a much bigger club that the rest of the teams in the League. Now however, there are many "big" clubs with long Football League traditions who would consider their natural place to be at least Division 4, but find themselves stuck in the Conference year after year. Clubs like Mansfield, York City, Wrexham, even Luton who were in Division 1 and winning the Littlewoods Cup during this 25 year period. Add in up and coming traditionally Non-League clubs such as Crawley, and "Phoenix" clubs like AFC Wimbledon or Newport County trying to restore former glories, and the amount of clubs seen as legitimate promotion contenders who wouldn’t look out of place in division 4 is now over half the division.
Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, the Conference was full of amateur or semi-professional sides, so a relegated team that maintained it’s full professional status was at an enormous advantage, and was considered a much bigger club that the rest of the teams in the League. Now however, there are many "big" clubs with long Football League traditions who would consider their natural place to be at least Division 4, but find themselves stuck in the Conference year after year. Clubs like Mansfield, York City, Wrexham, even Luton who were in Division 1 and winning the Littlewoods Cup during this 25 year period. Add in up and coming traditionally Non-League clubs such as Crawley, and "Phoenix" clubs like AFC Wimbledon or Newport County trying to restore former glories, and the amount of clubs seen as legitimate promotion contenders who wouldn’t look out of place in division 4 is now over half the division.
How did we get here? Well, I’d say there have been 4 distinct phases, the first of which is 1987-1992.
1987-1992
This period showed the gulf that still existed between Division 4 and the Conference. Every relegated team went one of two ways, either completely out of business (Aldershot, Newport County, Maidstone) or won their league status back almost immediately. Lincoln City and Darlington were both promoted in their first season, Colchester in their second, the only traditional Conference club competing was Barnet, who finished second three times before finally clinching their promotion in 1991.
1993-1996
This period was one of stagnation, but was also the period that really kick-started the increasing of quality and depth in Conference. Due to teams going out of business and the Football League expanding to 94 clubs, only one team dropped into the Conference between 1991 and 1996, Halifax Town in 1993, so it was wide open for the traditional Conference teams to take advantage and grab the promotion place available. Wycombe Wanderers did just that in 1992-93, under Martin O’Neill, they were a class apart from the rest of the league, winning by 15 points, but after that, the limitations of Conference teams were exposed.
Kidderminster, Macclesfield and Stevenage Borough were champions from 1994-96, but all were denied promotion due to their grounds not meeting Football league regulations. This forced these clubs, and others with Football league ambitions to develop their grounds, and as well more teams went fully professional in a bid to secure promotion, thus increasing the quality of the Conference as a whole.
Kidderminster, Macclesfield and Stevenage Borough were champions from 1994-96, but all were denied promotion due to their grounds not meeting Football league regulations. This forced these clubs, and others with Football league ambitions to develop their grounds, and as well more teams went fully professional in a bid to secure promotion, thus increasing the quality of the Conference as a whole.
1997-2002
From 1997 onwards, promotion and relegation resumed with no-one else barred from promotion, but unlike 87-92 this time the Conference was ready to compete. This was partially due to the stronger Conference teams of recent years still being there, as well as due to many of the relegated clubs being in financial dire straits and needing to steady themselves at Conference level before being able to compete. Macclesfield and Kidderminster both won again during this time and were actually promoted, joined in this period by Rushden and Diamonds and Boston United, both benefitting from an aggressive financial approach, and a Steve Cotterill inspired Cheltenham Town. The only former Division 4 team to win promotion during this time was Halifax Town, and they’d been in the Conference for 4 years already.
These teams were replaced by Hereford, Doncaster, Scarborough, Chester, and returnees Barnet and Halifax, so now rather than being the one big fish in the pond, any relegated team had plenty of other big teams to be competing against, a quick return would never be easy again.
These teams were replaced by Hereford, Doncaster, Scarborough, Chester, and returnees Barnet and Halifax, so now rather than being the one big fish in the pond, any relegated team had plenty of other big teams to be competing against, a quick return would never be easy again.
2003- Present
In 2003, a quick return was made a little easier as a second promotion relegation spot was opened up, to the winner of the playoff between the 2nd-5th placed teams, and initially the big clubs took advantage, with 5 of the 6 clubs promoted from 2003-05 having previously been relegated, with Yeovil Town as the only exception, and Carlisle and Shrewsbury both taking advantage of the playoffs to bounce back at the first attempt. Since then though things have evened off to an almost 50/50 split with 6 of 10 clubs, if you include Accrington Stanley and the new Aldershot club which I am, being traditional Conference clubs.
Perhaps the most remarkable stat, and testament to the new strength of the Conference, is that out of the 16 teams promoted in this period, only 1 of them, Chester City, have so far returned. The 16 relegated teams did include Kidderminster, Rushden and Boston, and 5 of the "big" clubs have earned their way back to Division 4. That leaves 8 teams that would consider themselves a Football League team languishing in the Conference, a number that’s only going to increase over the years as the Conference resembles more and more a 5th division rather than the huge dropoff it represented back in the 1980’s. It used to be that the relegated team would become an automatic favourite for promotion, that is clearly no longer the case.
Coming up:
Part 2: Looking at Division 4 and how the promoted teams have fared.
Perhaps the most remarkable stat, and testament to the new strength of the Conference, is that out of the 16 teams promoted in this period, only 1 of them, Chester City, have so far returned. The 16 relegated teams did include Kidderminster, Rushden and Boston, and 5 of the "big" clubs have earned their way back to Division 4. That leaves 8 teams that would consider themselves a Football League team languishing in the Conference, a number that’s only going to increase over the years as the Conference resembles more and more a 5th division rather than the huge dropoff it represented back in the 1980’s. It used to be that the relegated team would become an automatic favourite for promotion, that is clearly no longer the case.
Coming up:
Part 2: Looking at Division 4 and how the promoted teams have fared.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Half season league Two review.
Time to check in again with everyone's favourite division back in England as most League Two sides have now reached the half way mark of their schedule.
The first thing to note is that there are still no clubs in administration, and unlike in higher leagues, no real financial crises that could lead to it, at least none that are being publicly talked about, so that's a very good sign. There's been plenty of FA Cup success, with 4 teams still in it as we head to the 4th round, Burton Albion and Stevenage did some proper giant killing against Middlesbrough and Newcastle respectively, and are joined by Torquay United and Hereford United. Unfortunately no League Two teams have made it to the last 4 of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.
Pretty much the entire division took a weather enforced break through almost all of December, and when things got going again, the managerial sackings came very quickly, Barnet, Stockport County and Aldershot all changing managers within the first 10 days of 2011. Barnet and Stockport are still with caretaker managers, but Aldershot brought in Dean Holdsworth who's been doing very well with non-league Newport County. Port Vale also lost their manager as Micky Adams moved on up to Sheffield United, with Jim Gannon taking over there.
Chesterfield are your current leaders, with Wycombe and Rotherham also in promotion spots. Lincoln and Hereford currently occupy the relegation places, though they both have a lot of games in hand on Stockport.
Overshadowing all of that though is the tragic death of 29 year old Macclesfield midfielder Richard Butcher, which came less than 10 months after Macclesfield boss keith Alexander passed away.
Click here for a more detailed club by club review of the season so far, as well as to see how my predictions are working out so far.
The first thing to note is that there are still no clubs in administration, and unlike in higher leagues, no real financial crises that could lead to it, at least none that are being publicly talked about, so that's a very good sign. There's been plenty of FA Cup success, with 4 teams still in it as we head to the 4th round, Burton Albion and Stevenage did some proper giant killing against Middlesbrough and Newcastle respectively, and are joined by Torquay United and Hereford United. Unfortunately no League Two teams have made it to the last 4 of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.
Pretty much the entire division took a weather enforced break through almost all of December, and when things got going again, the managerial sackings came very quickly, Barnet, Stockport County and Aldershot all changing managers within the first 10 days of 2011. Barnet and Stockport are still with caretaker managers, but Aldershot brought in Dean Holdsworth who's been doing very well with non-league Newport County. Port Vale also lost their manager as Micky Adams moved on up to Sheffield United, with Jim Gannon taking over there.
Chesterfield are your current leaders, with Wycombe and Rotherham also in promotion spots. Lincoln and Hereford currently occupy the relegation places, though they both have a lot of games in hand on Stockport.
Overshadowing all of that though is the tragic death of 29 year old Macclesfield midfielder Richard Butcher, which came less than 10 months after Macclesfield boss keith Alexander passed away.
Click here for a more detailed club by club review of the season so far, as well as to see how my predictions are working out so far.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Sweet FA Cup, round 3.
As always, the first weekend of January means the third round of the FA Cup in England. A time for small clubs to take on the big boys and dream of the impossible upset, minnows vs sharks, David vs Goliath etc etc. But enough about plucky Liverpool's match against Man Utd tomorrow. Da-dum cchhhhhhh.
There were quite a few potential "cupsets" this year, and quite a few of them have actually happened, mainly against the North-East's big 3. Mr. Karren Brady's League two team Burton Albion got 2 late goals to beat Middlesbrough 2-1 and reach the 4th round for the first time in their history. As well, Sunderland lost 2-1 to League One Notts County, and Newcastle lost 3-1 at League 2 Stevenage! Combined with Hartlepool losing to Watford, and that's a weekend to warm any Darlington fan's heart. Stevenage's win prompted another great small club tradition, the celebratory pitch invasion, which unfortunately had an ugly moment when one of the Stevenage players got punched.
Other Premier League teams getting knocked out were West Brom, beaten by Reading, and Blackpool who lost at Southampton. The non-league clubs did themselves proud in defeat, York City holding Bolton goalless for 83 minutes before losing 2-0, in front of 4,900 travelling fans. Dover Athletic's fairytale run ended with a 2-0 defeat at League One Huddersfield. Crawley also play, against Derby County on Monday, but Crawley are the non-league version of Chelsea or Man city, rich and obnoxiously big spending, so I don't really find much romance in that tie.
Probably the most entertaining game of the day was actually a second round replay between two League Two teams, Hereford and Lincoln, which saw 7 goals, each one changing the result, before Hereford finally escaped with a 4-3 win.
All in all, very satisfying.
There were quite a few potential "cupsets" this year, and quite a few of them have actually happened, mainly against the North-East's big 3. Mr. Karren Brady's League two team Burton Albion got 2 late goals to beat Middlesbrough 2-1 and reach the 4th round for the first time in their history. As well, Sunderland lost 2-1 to League One Notts County, and Newcastle lost 3-1 at League 2 Stevenage! Combined with Hartlepool losing to Watford, and that's a weekend to warm any Darlington fan's heart. Stevenage's win prompted another great small club tradition, the celebratory pitch invasion, which unfortunately had an ugly moment when one of the Stevenage players got punched.
Other Premier League teams getting knocked out were West Brom, beaten by Reading, and Blackpool who lost at Southampton. The non-league clubs did themselves proud in defeat, York City holding Bolton goalless for 83 minutes before losing 2-0, in front of 4,900 travelling fans. Dover Athletic's fairytale run ended with a 2-0 defeat at League One Huddersfield. Crawley also play, against Derby County on Monday, but Crawley are the non-league version of Chelsea or Man city, rich and obnoxiously big spending, so I don't really find much romance in that tie.
Probably the most entertaining game of the day was actually a second round replay between two League Two teams, Hereford and Lincoln, which saw 7 goals, each one changing the result, before Hereford finally escaped with a 4-3 win.
All in all, very satisfying.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
It was 20 years ago today. January.
The lates instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November and December.
Coming off a disappointing game at Scarborough, Darlington started off 1991 with an impressive 4-1 win over Cardiff at home on new years day. The defence did most of the scoring, Les McJannett, Jimmy Willis and Mick Tait with goals, David Cork getting the other. The great start to the month continued with a 3-1 home win over Carlisle, Kevan Smith and Drew Coverdale with goals, as well as the first of the year for Phil Linacre who was making his first start of the season, replacing Cork. Due to weather related postponements and FA cup committments elsewhere, very few other teams were playing, so this win saw Darlington finally reach the top of the table with 40 points from 22 games.
It was over 3 weeks before we played at home again, the first away game being a Leyland DAF(t) trophy tie at Preston. We lost 2-1, (have we ever done well in that competition?) but Linacre did score again and now we could concentrate on the league. That meant a visit to Burnley, who were also chasing promotion, so a big game, big crowd and a good away following, Coverdale and Gary Gill were replaced in midfield by Steve Mardenborough and Paul Emson, and that can never be a good sign, and it did turn out badly, Linacre scored again! but it ended up 3-1 for Burnley and that was the end of our table topping for now.
It was two weeks before Darlo played again, this time a frustrating 0-0 draw at lowly Halifax. and then the last game of the month saw them finally return home for a game against Gillingham, and more importantly, referee Tom Fitzharris. Andy Toman was sent off for dissent and Mick Tait also saw red, and nine man Darlo hung on for a 1-1 draw. Needless to say the fans weren't happy and there was an angry pitch invasion, and Fitzharris was actually hit by an apple as he made his way down the tunnel.
As annoying as that game was, more concerning for Darlo fans was news that Birmingham City were trying to poach away Brian Little, which came up towards the end of the month. Thoughts of Brian going, probably taking Frank Gray with him, and potentially leaving Kevan Smith behind as player - manager were thankfully put to rest when Brian committed himself to Darlington, which would spur the team on to a very successful February.
As always, feel free to add comments and any memories to fill in the gaps. Cheers.
Coming up, February: a clean sheet or two, including Prudhoe's game at Hartlepool.
Coming off a disappointing game at Scarborough, Darlington started off 1991 with an impressive 4-1 win over Cardiff at home on new years day. The defence did most of the scoring, Les McJannett, Jimmy Willis and Mick Tait with goals, David Cork getting the other. The great start to the month continued with a 3-1 home win over Carlisle, Kevan Smith and Drew Coverdale with goals, as well as the first of the year for Phil Linacre who was making his first start of the season, replacing Cork. Due to weather related postponements and FA cup committments elsewhere, very few other teams were playing, so this win saw Darlington finally reach the top of the table with 40 points from 22 games.
It was over 3 weeks before we played at home again, the first away game being a Leyland DAF(t) trophy tie at Preston. We lost 2-1, (have we ever done well in that competition?) but Linacre did score again and now we could concentrate on the league. That meant a visit to Burnley, who were also chasing promotion, so a big game, big crowd and a good away following, Coverdale and Gary Gill were replaced in midfield by Steve Mardenborough and Paul Emson, and that can never be a good sign, and it did turn out badly, Linacre scored again! but it ended up 3-1 for Burnley and that was the end of our table topping for now.
It was two weeks before Darlo played again, this time a frustrating 0-0 draw at lowly Halifax. and then the last game of the month saw them finally return home for a game against Gillingham, and more importantly, referee Tom Fitzharris. Andy Toman was sent off for dissent and Mick Tait also saw red, and nine man Darlo hung on for a 1-1 draw. Needless to say the fans weren't happy and there was an angry pitch invasion, and Fitzharris was actually hit by an apple as he made his way down the tunnel.
As annoying as that game was, more concerning for Darlo fans was news that Birmingham City were trying to poach away Brian Little, which came up towards the end of the month. Thoughts of Brian going, probably taking Frank Gray with him, and potentially leaving Kevan Smith behind as player - manager were thankfully put to rest when Brian committed himself to Darlington, which would spur the team on to a very successful February.
As always, feel free to add comments and any memories to fill in the gaps. Cheers.
Coming up, February: a clean sheet or two, including Prudhoe's game at Hartlepool.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
It was 20 years ago today. December
Part 5 of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season, click the links for August, September, October and November. Be sure also to read the comments as there's a lot of good extra stuff there that I hadn't remembered.
With Mission Impossible advertising a pantomime "Goldilocks and the Three Mares, featuring Frank Gray, John Borthwick, and Paul Emson", which I think was very harsh on Gray, Darlington started the month at fellow promotion contenders Stockport County. Injuries to Les McJannett, Gray and David Corner meant a makeshift defence including Gary Coatsworth, who scored our goal, as well as Steve Mardenborough and Paul Emson, with player/physio Drew Coverdale on the wing, all of which led to an inauspicious 3-1 defeat described in Mission Impossible as a performance of 88/89 standards.
Having been knocked out of the FA cup, already, Darlo got a week off before playing the 2nd group game of the Leyland DAF trophy, at home against Grimsby Town. This game, played in front of just 1,106 people on a Tuesday night should be memorable for Andy Toman scoring a hat trick, or for the return to first team action of defender Jimmy Willis, or maybe for featuring probably the oldest, slowest, fattest striking partnership in our history, Davids Cork and Geddis. Instead the main talking point and memory is that Grimsby had 2 players sent off, for fighting each other! After receiving their red cards, one player chased the other down the tunnel, leading to rumours of one player sleeping with another's partner, if only the internet existed back then. The 3-1 win meant we advanced form our group along with York City to the next round
The following saturday saw us play again at home, against Torquay in what was one of the matches of the season. Torquay had been the early pace setter in the league, and were still doing well so this had a real top of the table feel to it, and The Quakers came out very much on top with a 3-0 win. The goals came from Coverdale, Toman and John Borthwick, but the star of the show was Lee Ellison, putting in his best first-team performance and giving a brief glimpse of the form that he would display for a fantastic 2 month spell the following season before slipping back to mediocrity before we even had a chance to cash in on him.
This was followed by another home game the next week against Chesterfield and Gary Gill scored to give us the 1-0 win, and with returns from injury for McJannnett and Gray, we now had the back 5 that would see us through the rest of the season, McJanett at RB, Gray at LB, Kevan Smith and Willis at CB and Mick Tait as sweeper.
Our Boxing day game was called off but not before the team and some fans had made the trip all the way down to Aldershot. Insult was added to injury when on the way home, Steve Mardenborough, getting dropped off at the Watford gap services, fell out of the bus. Mardenborough was quoted in an article from the South Wales Echo, reprinted in Mission Impossible saying "I just fell out of it from quite a height. All the lads were laughing and so was my wife. I dared not turn around and look at the bus."
The month ended with a trip to Scarborough, in the rain with no umbrellas allowed, and a first minute goal from Drew Coverdale was followed by other missed chances, and then a poor second half which saw us just hang on to a 1-1 draw, Scarborough scoring from a penalty. This game saw a first appearance of the year, on the bench, for perma-crocked striker Phil Linacre, which wasn't good news for David Cork, who missed a very good chance when through with just the goalie to beat, leading to the following joke in Mission impossible, Why was the Cork sad? Because he lost his bottle! Boom-boom.
As always please feel free to add your own memories in the comments section to fill in the gaps. Cheers.
Coming up, January: Top o' the league Ma! and Tom Fitzharris!
With Mission Impossible advertising a pantomime "Goldilocks and the Three Mares, featuring Frank Gray, John Borthwick, and Paul Emson", which I think was very harsh on Gray, Darlington started the month at fellow promotion contenders Stockport County. Injuries to Les McJannett, Gray and David Corner meant a makeshift defence including Gary Coatsworth, who scored our goal, as well as Steve Mardenborough and Paul Emson, with player/physio Drew Coverdale on the wing, all of which led to an inauspicious 3-1 defeat described in Mission Impossible as a performance of 88/89 standards.
Having been knocked out of the FA cup, already, Darlo got a week off before playing the 2nd group game of the Leyland DAF trophy, at home against Grimsby Town. This game, played in front of just 1,106 people on a Tuesday night should be memorable for Andy Toman scoring a hat trick, or for the return to first team action of defender Jimmy Willis, or maybe for featuring probably the oldest, slowest, fattest striking partnership in our history, Davids Cork and Geddis. Instead the main talking point and memory is that Grimsby had 2 players sent off, for fighting each other! After receiving their red cards, one player chased the other down the tunnel, leading to rumours of one player sleeping with another's partner, if only the internet existed back then. The 3-1 win meant we advanced form our group along with York City to the next round
The following saturday saw us play again at home, against Torquay in what was one of the matches of the season. Torquay had been the early pace setter in the league, and were still doing well so this had a real top of the table feel to it, and The Quakers came out very much on top with a 3-0 win. The goals came from Coverdale, Toman and John Borthwick, but the star of the show was Lee Ellison, putting in his best first-team performance and giving a brief glimpse of the form that he would display for a fantastic 2 month spell the following season before slipping back to mediocrity before we even had a chance to cash in on him.
This was followed by another home game the next week against Chesterfield and Gary Gill scored to give us the 1-0 win, and with returns from injury for McJannnett and Gray, we now had the back 5 that would see us through the rest of the season, McJanett at RB, Gray at LB, Kevan Smith and Willis at CB and Mick Tait as sweeper.
Our Boxing day game was called off but not before the team and some fans had made the trip all the way down to Aldershot. Insult was added to injury when on the way home, Steve Mardenborough, getting dropped off at the Watford gap services, fell out of the bus. Mardenborough was quoted in an article from the South Wales Echo, reprinted in Mission Impossible saying "I just fell out of it from quite a height. All the lads were laughing and so was my wife. I dared not turn around and look at the bus."
The month ended with a trip to Scarborough, in the rain with no umbrellas allowed, and a first minute goal from Drew Coverdale was followed by other missed chances, and then a poor second half which saw us just hang on to a 1-1 draw, Scarborough scoring from a penalty. This game saw a first appearance of the year, on the bench, for perma-crocked striker Phil Linacre, which wasn't good news for David Cork, who missed a very good chance when through with just the goalie to beat, leading to the following joke in Mission impossible, Why was the Cork sad? Because he lost his bottle! Boom-boom.
As always please feel free to add your own memories in the comments section to fill in the gaps. Cheers.
Coming up, January: Top o' the league Ma! and Tom Fitzharris!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Keep Scunthorpe Standing.
As a Darlington supporter, I really don't like Scunthorpe United, way too many bad things have happened there over the years, but a problem is arising for them that deserves more widespread attention and support, which I've only just found out about after reading about it here, at The Two Unfortunates blog.
After the Bradford and Hillsborough disasters in the 1980's, regulations were brought in to English football to make grounds safer, most notably the requirement for all seater stadia. It was recognised that smaller clubs and grounds don't have the same overcrowding issues as the big clubs, so clubs in the lower leagues weren't forced to convert their grounds to all seater, until they'd been at the Championship level for three seasons and Scunthorpe are now about to fall under that designation.
Now, no disrespect intended to Scunthorpe United, but they're not a Championship team, right now they're over-acheiving. Before the first of their recent promotions in 2007, it had been 40 years since they'd been at this level, with most of that time spent in the fourth tier. They were imediately relegated, but after winning promotion back, they just avoided relegation last year to secure a third championship season. They are currently one place ahead of the relegation spots, but if they do stay up again, they will have to put seats on the terrace, or completely rebuild the stand.
Glanford Park, opened in 1988, is more functional than pretty, but with a capacity of just over 9,000 is perfectly suited for a club of Scunthorpe's size, as opposed to the ridiculous 25,000 all seater white elephant that Darlington have been saddled with. Even after the most successful few years in the club's history, attendances are usually around the 6,000 level, so there's plenty of seats available for whoever wants one, along with a bit of extra space if a big game happens, or a large group of travelling supporters needs to be accomodated. More importantly, the stadium doesn't dwarf the regular crowd, and won't even if the attendance dwindles, if and when they slide back down to their usual level, and the terrace is a popular and safe feature of that.
As well as being unpopular, putting in seats is a move that would inhibit Scunthorpe's ability to compete at this level, and could well contribute to their return to the lower leagues, where ironically the terrace would be no problem at all. Putting seats on the terrace, as well as providing a crappy view of the game, would cut capacity by a thousand or so, affecting ticket revenue, and for a team with one of if not the lowest payrolls in the division, that certainly won't help. Another option being discussed would maintain the current capacity by bulding a new bigger stand with seats, but again that would be a very expensive option.
Scunthorpe supporters have joined with the Football Supporters Federation in an effort to bring publicity to the issue and hopefully win a positive resolution. You can get more information on that campaign here, hopefully wiser heads will prevail and Scunthorpe won't be punished for having the most successful run of seasons in their existence.
After the Bradford and Hillsborough disasters in the 1980's, regulations were brought in to English football to make grounds safer, most notably the requirement for all seater stadia. It was recognised that smaller clubs and grounds don't have the same overcrowding issues as the big clubs, so clubs in the lower leagues weren't forced to convert their grounds to all seater, until they'd been at the Championship level for three seasons and Scunthorpe are now about to fall under that designation.
Now, no disrespect intended to Scunthorpe United, but they're not a Championship team, right now they're over-acheiving. Before the first of their recent promotions in 2007, it had been 40 years since they'd been at this level, with most of that time spent in the fourth tier. They were imediately relegated, but after winning promotion back, they just avoided relegation last year to secure a third championship season. They are currently one place ahead of the relegation spots, but if they do stay up again, they will have to put seats on the terrace, or completely rebuild the stand.
Glanford Park, opened in 1988, is more functional than pretty, but with a capacity of just over 9,000 is perfectly suited for a club of Scunthorpe's size, as opposed to the ridiculous 25,000 all seater white elephant that Darlington have been saddled with. Even after the most successful few years in the club's history, attendances are usually around the 6,000 level, so there's plenty of seats available for whoever wants one, along with a bit of extra space if a big game happens, or a large group of travelling supporters needs to be accomodated. More importantly, the stadium doesn't dwarf the regular crowd, and won't even if the attendance dwindles, if and when they slide back down to their usual level, and the terrace is a popular and safe feature of that.
As well as being unpopular, putting in seats is a move that would inhibit Scunthorpe's ability to compete at this level, and could well contribute to their return to the lower leagues, where ironically the terrace would be no problem at all. Putting seats on the terrace, as well as providing a crappy view of the game, would cut capacity by a thousand or so, affecting ticket revenue, and for a team with one of if not the lowest payrolls in the division, that certainly won't help. Another option being discussed would maintain the current capacity by bulding a new bigger stand with seats, but again that would be a very expensive option.
Scunthorpe supporters have joined with the Football Supporters Federation in an effort to bring publicity to the issue and hopefully win a positive resolution. You can get more information on that campaign here, hopefully wiser heads will prevail and Scunthorpe won't be punished for having the most successful run of seasons in their existence.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Hello darkness, my old friend.
Well that was inevitable, after Beating Bristol Rovers, a team 2 divisions above them and after all the effort that went into being able to play the game, and with all sorts of big names waiting in the bag for the 3rd round draw, Darlington did of course lose to fellow Conference side York City. Some things never change. The bucket collection apparently raised about 1300 pounds towards the youth team's Arsenal game so that's something I suppose.
In other results Stevenage completed the Wimbledon before and after double, following up their first round win over Franchise FC with a win over AFC Wimbledon. Swindon Supermarine lost to Colchester, but Dover made it through to the third round for the first time in their history, beating Aldershot 2-0. Other non-league teams making it at least into the draw for the third round with York and Dover were Luton who drew with Charlton, and FC United of Manchester. An injury time penalty save preserved the 1-1 draw at Brighton, so they'll have a replay at home, the latest in a recent succession of "biggest match in their history" moments. Crawley Town also earned a replay against Swindon Town on Friday night, but they're the big spending Man City of non-league football, so a lot less of a heartwarming story. Pity poor Tamworth who almost made it, 2-1 up with 5 minutes left against League One side Carlisle before letting in 2 late goals to lose 3-2. Droylsden don't play Leyton Orient until Monday, so they'll also be in the draw on Sunday.
As for Darlington, well, it's time to drag out the 'concentrate on promotion' cliches now. Sigh.
In other results Stevenage completed the Wimbledon before and after double, following up their first round win over Franchise FC with a win over AFC Wimbledon. Swindon Supermarine lost to Colchester, but Dover made it through to the third round for the first time in their history, beating Aldershot 2-0. Other non-league teams making it at least into the draw for the third round with York and Dover were Luton who drew with Charlton, and FC United of Manchester. An injury time penalty save preserved the 1-1 draw at Brighton, so they'll have a replay at home, the latest in a recent succession of "biggest match in their history" moments. Crawley Town also earned a replay against Swindon Town on Friday night, but they're the big spending Man City of non-league football, so a lot less of a heartwarming story. Pity poor Tamworth who almost made it, 2-1 up with 5 minutes left against League One side Carlisle before letting in 2 late goals to lose 3-2. Droylsden don't play Leyton Orient until Monday, so they'll also be in the draw on Sunday.
As for Darlington, well, it's time to drag out the 'concentrate on promotion' cliches now. Sigh.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Sweet FA Cup, round 2.
Yes, once again it's FA Cup time in England, this time the 2nd round, where all surviving lower league and non-league teams dream of the victory that will take them into the 3rd round and a potential money spinning draw against one of the big boys. This round's small teams getting their moment in the spotlight include Swindon Supermarine a fantastically named team who very nearly went bust in June and are playing away to Colchester United, and Dover whose reward for beating Gillingham in the first round is a home tie against Aldershot. The two highest profile non-league clubs, FC United of Manchester and AFC Wimbledon both face league opposition, away to Brighton and home to Stevenage respectively.
As for Darlington, after upsetting Bristol Rovers, they now face York City at home, and events have conspired to give the match a real nostalgic small club feel. I posted earlier in the week about how the club is looking for donations for the youth team to be able to spend the night in London before they face Arsenal in the FA youth cup, they're still looking by the way, so go ahead and donate. Well the next step in that fundraising effort, to take place at saturday's game is the magnificently old fashioned, small club tactic of the bucket collection. If that doesn't tug at the heart strings enough, after a rough few days weather wise, the collection and the game itself can only take place thanks to the efforts of volounteer fans who helped shovel snow off the pitch (Darlington's ridiculously oversized stadium actually has the pipes for underground heating installed, they just can't afford to use it.). After all that effort, and with a bumper crowd expected, well every long suffering Darlo fan knows what will happen next, expect York to be drawn against Man Utd in the next round.
As for Darlington, after upsetting Bristol Rovers, they now face York City at home, and events have conspired to give the match a real nostalgic small club feel. I posted earlier in the week about how the club is looking for donations for the youth team to be able to spend the night in London before they face Arsenal in the FA youth cup, they're still looking by the way, so go ahead and donate. Well the next step in that fundraising effort, to take place at saturday's game is the magnificently old fashioned, small club tactic of the bucket collection. If that doesn't tug at the heart strings enough, after a rough few days weather wise, the collection and the game itself can only take place thanks to the efforts of volounteer fans who helped shovel snow off the pitch (Darlington's ridiculously oversized stadium actually has the pipes for underground heating installed, they just can't afford to use it.). After all that effort, and with a bumper crowd expected, well every long suffering Darlo fan knows what will happen next, expect York to be drawn against Man Utd in the next round.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
It was 20 years ago today. November
Part 4 of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September and October.
Darlo entered November riding high in the standings, and their first game was away at Rochdale, Mark Burke's loan was over, and with Steve Mardenborough still covering for Les McJannett, that meant a return to the lineup for Paul Emson, who didn't really do much, and an own goal meant we got a 1-1 draw, marred by an injury to Frank Gray. Next up was a trip back to the non league, at Barrow, for the GM Vauxhall Shield, the non league version of the Charity Shield, a trophy Darlington won handily 4-0, with goals from Mardenborough, Andy Toman and 2 from John Borthwick.
This was followed by the first meeting of the season with Hartlepool, with our highest crowd of the season, 5,713 on hand to watch what turned out to be a frustrating game. Darlo didn't play a great game, and missed a few chances before the ugliest man in football, the man who made Peter Beardsley look good, Joe Allon, scored the only goal of the game. I may be getting games and seasons mixed up here, but I think it was from a corner in front of the Tin Shed, he'd been getting abuse all game, and he pointed to the goal, saying he was going to head it in, right before he did.
The next week was the first round of the FA cup. With memories of last years run to a third round replay and the injustice of Archie Stephens' disallowed goal fresh in our minds, another big crowd came out for our home game against York City. Gary Gill scored our goal in a 1-1 draw that I don't remember at all. This game saw the return of Frank Gray from injury, and was also the last game that David Corner started for us. The replay was 3 days later, and marked the first time in the starting line up for up and coming youth player Lee Ellison, though he couldn't inspire us as it ended 1-0 to York and that was that for our FA cup hopes for another year.
Getting back to the league was just what Darlo needed, a makeshift defence including Emson and Drew Coverdale not stopping us from getting a 3-0 away win at Lincoln, Ellison getting the start again, and scoring his first goal. Kevan Smith also scored, as did Gary Gill from the penalty spot.
The last game of the month saw us playing another cup tie against bloody York, this time in the group stage of the Leyland Daf trophy, where another defender picked up an injury, this time Les McJannett, and 2 goals from Borthwick couldn't stop us going down to a 3-2 defeat.
The day before that game though, saw Feethams host an FA youth cup 2nd round game against Manchester United, with the big attraction being some 16 year old kid called Ryan Giggs, who was apparently going to be the next George Best. This was the only youth team game I ever went to and also the only game I watched from the East stand paddock and Giggs definitely looked good, scoring 5 goals in a 6-0 win, but check out the rest of the Man Utd line-up, under Ferguson, you'd think there'd be some good kids there, well here they are, at least here's who's listed on the programme. Ian Wilkinson, Alan McReavie, Leslie Pottts, Mark Gordon, James Shields, John Sharples, Adrian Doherty, Peter Smyth, Colin McKee, Simon Davies, and Marcus Barmeld and John Okane on the bench. Not exactly household names. Darlo's team that day included Sean Gregan, as well as a few players who made the grade at Darlo's level, Anthony Isaacs, Simon Shaw and Lee Ellison.
As always, feel free to add your own memories in the comments section to fill in the gaps.
Coming up: December, including Grimsby Town players fighting themselves.
Darlo entered November riding high in the standings, and their first game was away at Rochdale, Mark Burke's loan was over, and with Steve Mardenborough still covering for Les McJannett, that meant a return to the lineup for Paul Emson, who didn't really do much, and an own goal meant we got a 1-1 draw, marred by an injury to Frank Gray. Next up was a trip back to the non league, at Barrow, for the GM Vauxhall Shield, the non league version of the Charity Shield, a trophy Darlington won handily 4-0, with goals from Mardenborough, Andy Toman and 2 from John Borthwick.
This was followed by the first meeting of the season with Hartlepool, with our highest crowd of the season, 5,713 on hand to watch what turned out to be a frustrating game. Darlo didn't play a great game, and missed a few chances before the ugliest man in football, the man who made Peter Beardsley look good, Joe Allon, scored the only goal of the game. I may be getting games and seasons mixed up here, but I think it was from a corner in front of the Tin Shed, he'd been getting abuse all game, and he pointed to the goal, saying he was going to head it in, right before he did.
The next week was the first round of the FA cup. With memories of last years run to a third round replay and the injustice of Archie Stephens' disallowed goal fresh in our minds, another big crowd came out for our home game against York City. Gary Gill scored our goal in a 1-1 draw that I don't remember at all. This game saw the return of Frank Gray from injury, and was also the last game that David Corner started for us. The replay was 3 days later, and marked the first time in the starting line up for up and coming youth player Lee Ellison, though he couldn't inspire us as it ended 1-0 to York and that was that for our FA cup hopes for another year.
Getting back to the league was just what Darlo needed, a makeshift defence including Emson and Drew Coverdale not stopping us from getting a 3-0 away win at Lincoln, Ellison getting the start again, and scoring his first goal. Kevan Smith also scored, as did Gary Gill from the penalty spot.
The last game of the month saw us playing another cup tie against bloody York, this time in the group stage of the Leyland Daf trophy, where another defender picked up an injury, this time Les McJannett, and 2 goals from Borthwick couldn't stop us going down to a 3-2 defeat.
The day before that game though, saw Feethams host an FA youth cup 2nd round game against Manchester United, with the big attraction being some 16 year old kid called Ryan Giggs, who was apparently going to be the next George Best. This was the only youth team game I ever went to and also the only game I watched from the East stand paddock and Giggs definitely looked good, scoring 5 goals in a 6-0 win, but check out the rest of the Man Utd line-up, under Ferguson, you'd think there'd be some good kids there, well here they are, at least here's who's listed on the programme. Ian Wilkinson, Alan McReavie, Leslie Pottts, Mark Gordon, James Shields, John Sharples, Adrian Doherty, Peter Smyth, Colin McKee, Simon Davies, and Marcus Barmeld and John Okane on the bench. Not exactly household names. Darlo's team that day included Sean Gregan, as well as a few players who made the grade at Darlo's level, Anthony Isaacs, Simon Shaw and Lee Ellison.
As always, feel free to add your own memories in the comments section to fill in the gaps.
Coming up: December, including Grimsby Town players fighting themselves.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Sweet FA Cup.
This is going to be a great weekend of football. The MLS cup conference semi-finals second leg games will be played over 4 days, starting Thursday night with only one goal seperating the teams in every game, so it's all very much still up for grabs. Then in England, it's FA cup time. While the third round, when all the big teams enter, is generally the weekend that gets the most attention, the first round proper, when the League One and League Two teams join all the non-league teams that have got through qualifying, is one of my favourite footballing weekends of the year. Those Football League teams that are generally ignored for most of the year are lined up as the giants waiting to be killed and a bunch of teams from towns you've never heard of get their moment in the spotlight. I don't know if they still do it or not, but every year it was a BBC staple to do a piece following the players in their real jobs, one of which was always, always, a postman.
This years teams getting the patronising pats on the head are Tipton Town (from park football to the FA cup!)and Hythe Town (the lowest ranked team left in the cup)who have away games at Carlisle and Hereford respectively.
Other matches getting attention, in my house at least are Darlington vs Bristol Rovers and Gillingham vs Dover. As a freshly minted non-league team, Darlington had to qualify, which they did by beating Mossley AFC 6-2. Mossley had 3 players sent off, including their goalkeeper, leading to the man who works their tannoy using his platform to announce to everyone“I don't believe you referee, you're turning this into a farce!” Fantastic stuff. It's not a great draw as Rovers are probably big enough to be able to beat us easily, whilst not being big enough for Darlington to get the big crowd and cash they need.
Gillingham vs Dover could be very interesting, mainly due to the following, which happened this summer, brought up in the Guardian's The Knowledge section
This years teams getting the patronising pats on the head are Tipton Town (from park football to the FA cup!)and Hythe Town (the lowest ranked team left in the cup)who have away games at Carlisle and Hereford respectively.
Other matches getting attention, in my house at least are Darlington vs Bristol Rovers and Gillingham vs Dover. As a freshly minted non-league team, Darlington had to qualify, which they did by beating Mossley AFC 6-2. Mossley had 3 players sent off, including their goalkeeper, leading to the man who works their tannoy using his platform to announce to everyone“I don't believe you referee, you're turning this into a farce!” Fantastic stuff. It's not a great draw as Rovers are probably big enough to be able to beat us easily, whilst not being big enough for Darlington to get the big crowd and cash they need.
Gillingham vs Dover could be very interesting, mainly due to the following, which happened this summer, brought up in the Guardian's The Knowledge section
"On 6 November Gillingham will be playing Dover in an FA Cup first round game," begins James Tong. "Not only is it a nice Kentish derby, but it has added spice given that this summer we nicked their manager (Andy Hessenthaler), their assistant manager (Darren Hare, now youth team manager), their replacement manager (Ian Hendon, who was there for 17 days, was on holiday for 14 of those days, then came up the A2 to Gillingham not having signed a contract at Dover) and their replacement player/assistant manager (Nicky Southall, now at his fourth spell at Priestfield). As we're two leagues apart and the Whites are making the FA Cup first round for only the third time ever, it's quite amazing that we've been drawn against them in the season after all the shenanigans. Has there been a spicier match drawn in such against-the-odds circumstances?"The match getting the most coverage though is FC United of Manchester's game against Rochdale, this being the first time FCUM have made it this far in their 5 year existence since being created by Manchester United fans sick of what their club had become and pushed over the edge by the Glazer's takeover of the club. This is a great article published after they qualified, detailing how they've come this far and what their future plans are. I love a good 'stick it to The Man' story as much as anyone, especially when that Man is Man Utd. so even though I have a soft spot for Rochdale, I'll certainly be cheering for FCUM.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Arthur Wharton
Back in England, the FA makes a very easy target for mockery with it's scandals, it's fit and proper persons test and it's general ineptitude in guarding the game's best interest as opposed to those of the Premier League.
But today at least it's doing something right, in recognition of Arthur Wharton.
From today's Northern Echo:
But today at least it's doing something right, in recognition of Arthur Wharton.
From today's Northern Echo:
You can read the rest of the article here and for more on the story of Arthur Wharton, who as well as being the world's first black professional footballer, was also at one time the world record holder in the 100 yard dash, click here. For details about the Arthur Wharton Foundation and the campaign that led to the donation in question click here.THE Football Association will tonight announce it is donating a five-figure sum to honour a North- East sporting pioneer.The donation, thought to be about £20,000, means work can now begin on a 12ft bronze statue of former Darlington goalkeeper Arthur Wharton, the world’s first black professional footballer.The news will be announced at the Black List awards, taking place in London tonight, which are held to celebrate the most influential black people in football. Today would have been Wharton’s 125th birthday.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
It was 20 years ago today. October
Part 3 of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, and here for September.
Things were looking promising going into October, but our first away game was a frustrating one at Peterborough, a 1-0 defeat with Paul Emson missing enough chances to have a crimestoppers poster put in the fanzine Mission Impossible. "Have you seen this man? He is wanted for questioning and/or mutilation by Darlington fans after missing THREE absolute sitters against Peterborough United, which could have been scored by an inebriated duck with a wooden leg - or even Archie Stephens." That was the end of Emson's run as a regular starter, replaced in the next game against Hereford by Mark Burke, on loan from Middlesbrough, who scored on his debut, as did David Cork and Michael Trotter, in a 3-1 win, which unfortunately saw Les McJannett injured, he would miss the rest of the month, replaced by Steve Mardenborough.
Next up was Swindon for the second leg of our League cup tie, with a comfortable 3-0 lead from the first leg. I wasn't at the game and ended up watching teletext in horror as the goals kept on coming in, and we ended up losing 4-0 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate. The main thing I remember about the game was the next morning going to school, and one of my friends hanging out of a window to laugh at me as I walked in from the bus stop. A valuable lesson for any Darlo fan, even when things go well, it won't be long until they inevitably end up going bad.
We then played Blackpool again, in the league this time, and I was amongst the over 1,000 fans making the trip for the saturday afternoon game. Blackpool were doing well that year so it had a bit of a top of the table feel to it, and Darlo won 2-1, Gary Gill scoring late with what I think was a header from a corner right in front of the Darlo fans. An away trip to Maidstone followed, the team who were promoted, under slightly dubious circumstances the year that Darlington were relegated, which ended in a late come from behind 3-2 win, Toman, Borthwick and Cork with the goals. This was the first game missed by David Corner, replaced by promotion clinching hero Gary Coatsworth
Two home games finished off the month, a Tuesday night game against Northampton which saw our highest crowd of the season so far witness a 1-1 draw, Frank Gray with his third penalty of the year. A 0-0 draw with Scunthorpe ended the month, a game most notable for emotional chants of "we told you we'd be back" at the Scunthorpe fans who had seen us relegated back in 1989.
As always, feel free to add your own memories in the comments section to fill in any important details I've forgotten.
Coming up: November, lots of cup games against York, and the Monkey hangers come to town, as does Ryan Giggs (and guess who the second most famous player (with hindsight) was on the pitch that night).
Things were looking promising going into October, but our first away game was a frustrating one at Peterborough, a 1-0 defeat with Paul Emson missing enough chances to have a crimestoppers poster put in the fanzine Mission Impossible. "Have you seen this man? He is wanted for questioning and/or mutilation by Darlington fans after missing THREE absolute sitters against Peterborough United, which could have been scored by an inebriated duck with a wooden leg - or even Archie Stephens." That was the end of Emson's run as a regular starter, replaced in the next game against Hereford by Mark Burke, on loan from Middlesbrough, who scored on his debut, as did David Cork and Michael Trotter, in a 3-1 win, which unfortunately saw Les McJannett injured, he would miss the rest of the month, replaced by Steve Mardenborough.
Next up was Swindon for the second leg of our League cup tie, with a comfortable 3-0 lead from the first leg. I wasn't at the game and ended up watching teletext in horror as the goals kept on coming in, and we ended up losing 4-0 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate. The main thing I remember about the game was the next morning going to school, and one of my friends hanging out of a window to laugh at me as I walked in from the bus stop. A valuable lesson for any Darlo fan, even when things go well, it won't be long until they inevitably end up going bad.
We then played Blackpool again, in the league this time, and I was amongst the over 1,000 fans making the trip for the saturday afternoon game. Blackpool were doing well that year so it had a bit of a top of the table feel to it, and Darlo won 2-1, Gary Gill scoring late with what I think was a header from a corner right in front of the Darlo fans. An away trip to Maidstone followed, the team who were promoted, under slightly dubious circumstances the year that Darlington were relegated, which ended in a late come from behind 3-2 win, Toman, Borthwick and Cork with the goals. This was the first game missed by David Corner, replaced by promotion clinching hero Gary Coatsworth
Two home games finished off the month, a Tuesday night game against Northampton which saw our highest crowd of the season so far witness a 1-1 draw, Frank Gray with his third penalty of the year. A 0-0 draw with Scunthorpe ended the month, a game most notable for emotional chants of "we told you we'd be back" at the Scunthorpe fans who had seen us relegated back in 1989.
As always, feel free to add your own memories in the comments section to fill in any important details I've forgotten.
Coming up: November, lots of cup games against York, and the Monkey hangers come to town, as does Ryan Giggs (and guess who the second most famous player (with hindsight) was on the pitch that night).
Monday, October 18, 2010
Quarter season league two review.
So, a quarter of the way through the season seemed like a good time to see what's happening in my favourite English division, league two.
No-one's gone into administration yet, so that's a good start. A jumper was lost at Oxford, Barnet players reimbursed the travelling fans who watched them lose 7-0 at Crewe, Northampton hilariously knocked Liverpool out of the League Cup, Chris Sutton walked away from Lincoln, and my favourite story so far, Simon Davey was fired by Hereford a mere 10 games into the season.
Click here to see the long version of why Darlington fans hate him. The short version? Well, whilst still in charge at Darlo he went to the U.S in the summer, and when he was there he resigned by email, saying he'd got a great job in the States, a once in a lifetime opportunity that he had to take for his families sake etc etc. Thne he gave up that magnificent and in no way fake offer in order to join Hereford. Bloody Hereford! So I'm very happy he got fired, as are some other people.
On the pitch, there's been some epic games with the 7 goal game barrier being reached 7 times already, including a 7-4, a 5-5 with 4 goals in the last 10 minutes, a 6-4, and Hereford, post Davey firing coming back form 3-0 down at half time to win 4-3.
Torquay looked really good in August, and kept a clean-sheet streak going from last year for another 4 games or so, a streak that ended rather cruelly at 998 minutes. Since then things have gone wrong and they've slumped so far as to be out of the playoffs. Chesterfield are your current leaders, with Port Vale and Rotherham making up the rest of the automatic promotion spots. Barnet and Hereford are currently in relegation places. To see how that and the rest of the division fits in with my pre-season predictions, click here.
No-one's gone into administration yet, so that's a good start. A jumper was lost at Oxford, Barnet players reimbursed the travelling fans who watched them lose 7-0 at Crewe, Northampton hilariously knocked Liverpool out of the League Cup, Chris Sutton walked away from Lincoln, and my favourite story so far, Simon Davey was fired by Hereford a mere 10 games into the season.
Click here to see the long version of why Darlington fans hate him. The short version? Well, whilst still in charge at Darlo he went to the U.S in the summer, and when he was there he resigned by email, saying he'd got a great job in the States, a once in a lifetime opportunity that he had to take for his families sake etc etc. Thne he gave up that magnificent and in no way fake offer in order to join Hereford. Bloody Hereford! So I'm very happy he got fired, as are some other people.
On the pitch, there's been some epic games with the 7 goal game barrier being reached 7 times already, including a 7-4, a 5-5 with 4 goals in the last 10 minutes, a 6-4, and Hereford, post Davey firing coming back form 3-0 down at half time to win 4-3.
Torquay looked really good in August, and kept a clean-sheet streak going from last year for another 4 games or so, a streak that ended rather cruelly at 998 minutes. Since then things have gone wrong and they've slumped so far as to be out of the playoffs. Chesterfield are your current leaders, with Port Vale and Rotherham making up the rest of the automatic promotion spots. Barnet and Hereford are currently in relegation places. To see how that and the rest of the division fits in with my pre-season predictions, click here.
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