County visit Darlington on Saturday in a 3pm kick-off and, ahead of this Vanarama National League North tie, County Tweet-meister Gareth Evans has put together five factoids on Darlington for you.
- 1. So, Non-League Day this Saturday, and we visit ‘Darlo’. The irony isn’t lost – even on me!
Certainly, our two clubs go back a long way beyond where we find ourselves now. The ‘Quakers’ – with whom County’s birth-year of 1883 is shared – were regular opponents for many of the years we spent mutually in the Football League. And, in fact, the Hatters were pitted against only three others (namely, Crewe, Rochdale, and Darlington’s traditional rivals Hartlepool) more frequently.
- 2. Sounds like Darlington have been on even more of a non-league roller-coster ride than us?
Indeed they have! Their initial experience of the Conference (as was) came during 1989/90, after they had dropped down to it in the third season of automatic relegation, and following 68 years of Football League membership which had begun upon the formation of the Third Division North in 1921. But the Quakers’ first flirtation with the world of non-league since the club’s late-19th and early-20th century days as founding Northern League members was to be mercifully brief, as they bounced straight back as Champions in 1990, and then proceeded to top the Fourth Division for 1990/91 in the season that also, of course, saw County gain promotion as runners-up.
Darlo’s second, ongoing spell out of the League has trodden a rather less straightforward path. Having been relegated again from the fourth tier in 2010, following two periods in administration, the Quakers once more began on a high by beating Mansfield to lift the FA Trophy for 2011. But during 2011/12, the club went into administration a third time, and was demoted from the
Conference. It survived liquidation, and was set for community ownership – but in the absence of a Creditors Voluntary Arrangement, was deemed to be a new organisation, and ‘Darlington 1883’ found themselves plummeting not one but four divisions, into the First Division of the Northern League that they had left over 90 years earlier. The reunion was fleeting, as they finished their first campaign back as Champions in 2013. And within another three seasons, they had successfully negotiated two levels of the Northern Premier League to reach the National League North.
- 3. Whew! Good to see, too, that the club has its traditional name back again now.
Yes, it has this season reverted to being simply ‘Darlington’ – with which every sensibly-minded
person in the footballing world would surely feel most comfortable. It helps, after all, to reclaim in our minds a history that, among other things, saw the Quakers: reach the semi-finals of the old FA Amateur Cup (in 1896 and 1900); participate, with Carlisle, in the inaugural floodlit FA Cup-tie
between Football League clubs (in 1955); and become the first team (during 1999/2000) to lose and yet still qualify for a next round of the FA Cup, when they were the ‘lucky losers’ drawn to replace Manchester United, while the latter opted to play in the FIFA Club World Championship.
United had also indirectly provided Darlo with some national knockout joy (and us Hatters with possibly mild heartbreak) back in 1934, when Old Trafford was the venue for the final of the Third Division North Cup – which the Quakers won, beating County by the odd goal in seven.
- 4. What about players who have turned out for both clubs?
There were a few during our shared Football League seasons. Most notably, ‘Super’ Alun
Armstrong (at County from 1994-98), who returns to Edgeley Park a weekend hence as manager of Blyth Spartans, had two separate spells during later stages of his playing career at Darlo.
Earlier, outside-left Dave Partridge (1960-62) and midfielder Michael Oliver (1994-96) had both made Darlington their next destination from SK3, while Garry MacDonald, a forward who
appeared on just the one occasion for County in 1989, joined us from the Quakers. And another left-winger, Harry Kirk (1973-75), who had previously plied his trade for the County Durham outfit, departed from Edgeley Park to seek his fortune in Sweden with Second Division IK Sirius – where he may or may not have become a star! Arf.
- 5. A new ground for us all this weekend, as well!
Correct. Blackwell Meadows, which the Quakers share in the town with Darlington Rugby Club, has been their home since last Boxing Day. And it will be the fourth different Darlo-venue to which we have trekked over the last quarter of a century – the most for any one club visited by County in modern times, after the charming Feethams, the cavernous Darlington Arena and, early last term, Bishop Auckland’s Heritage Park. County have not beaten them anywhere in more than five years, mind. Hopefully, a change of ground will, for the Hatters, bring with it a change of luck!
