The Darlington FC Story - Back in the EFL?
Darlington FC, The Quakers, a team founded in 1883 with a long history in the beautiful game, with many ups and downs, they are the perfect side to take charge of. As recently as 09/10 season, Darlington were a football league side before a decline into the conference and then administration. However, since the club was taken over by DFC 1883 Ltd, they have had 3 promotions in 7 seasons and now find themselves in the National League North. The target? To not only get Darlington back in the EFL and become a football league side but to maintain that stature. Join me on the Darlington FC Story.
SEASON 1
PREDICTED - 5TH.
A squad with experience and talent, we're predicted a play off push and rightly so. In honesty I think we can go one better and become champions of this league.
Firstly, the transfers and the squad. We have made a fair few signings (not all by me I must admit) and see 1 departure.
The signings of Nicky Hunt, Dan Maguire, Conor Tee & Rhys Browne are all fantastic captures for the club and should really help with our push towards NLN glory! The departure of Jamie Holmes is with no real concern as he was only a fringe player and racking in 400P/W on wages. With our IN's & OUT's, our squad looks like this:
PRE-SEASON
A disappointing 2-0 defeat to Flint Town and a strong performance against a tough Sunderland side were the main highlights in our pre-season campaign. I couldn't single handily pick a player who performed exceptional in pre-season but what I can say is that everyone was very.. lets say.. good.
OCTOBER
With our squad ready and a fairly good pre-season now behind us, we turn our attention to the season ahead. We start our league campaign with an away game to a fairly strong Brackley side but start our focus with a home fixture in the F.A CUP 2nd round qualifier against St Ives.
As you can clearly see, WE DO NOT CONCEED. However, WE DO NOT SCORE GOALS. Boring Darlington? Jokes a side, we concede 2 goals in 8 games and they all came in the same match. With 3 0-0's in our opening 3 league games, our defensive was in magnificent form however we really needed to improve on the attacking side of our game. Changing the training and tactics made us still very tight at the back but also made us start scoring goals (well, a goal a game). Strong wins against Boston and Chorley made it so we were undefeated in October.
We also set a new club record....
THE F.A CUP was also a competition I was extremely keen on doing well in and my god! A struggle against two sides in the division below made me have doubts that we might not get a FA CUP story I believe this club deservers however, a 1-0 win away to National League side Chesterfield in the 89' minute sets us up for a tie at home vs Tranmere in the first round proper. Maybe there is a F.A Cup story to be shared this year...