The Darlington FC Story - Back in the EFL?

[JoeHolmes]

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...​

 

[JoeHolmes]

NOVEMBER

With an undefeated October behind us, we head into November in good spirits. November see's us play local rivals Blyth as well as some top teams in this division as well as FA Cup 1st Round tie vs Football league side Tranmere rovers.​

To say I am gutted is an understatement. If you had turned the TV on in the first half, you'd think we were the Football League side, keeping possession nicely and making no silly mistakes. We slowed them down with little fouls when possible making sure they couldn't punish us with any quick breaks. At HT, the score being 0-0, I genuinely thought we could go onto win..

However, that wasn't to be the case as Tranmere's Kaiyne Woolery scored a volley inside the box after some pinball play. We went on to attack the game and even though we had only four shoots, we spent the majority of the last 20 minutes inside their half.

0-1, in the FA Cup 1st round vs Tranmere at a full Blackwell Meadows, it just wasn't to be, but a great day for the club and really does show what these group of lads can do.

WHAT THE **** HAPPENED. After such a fantastic game against Tranmere, in all honesty, we fell apart in November. We suffer our first defeat of the season against Hereford (who yes are a very strong side but we played terribly.) and our second defeat to bottom of the league Farsley. Not one game did we look anywhere near the pace I was expecting. The Blyth game (our rivals) we didn't play great but we were lucky that Blyth didn't turn up either. Draws against Telford and Chester were probably the better performances of the month but to only grab 6 points from a possible 18 with the squad we have, one word. Disappointed.

At the end of November, we finish 2 points outside the playoffs. We really need to step up over the next few weeks.

In other news, the rumours that Darlington were going to be taken over are unlikely, and I hope it stays that way. Nothing better than when the fans own the football club!

We head into December as we welcome Gloucester to Darlington.​

 

[alyndavies]

Great read thanks for posting.
Good luck with it.
I've always enjoyed playing Darlington, especially with the Darlington Arena back in the older versions due to the capacity of the stadium.

 

[BJM0161]

Good luck! Keep us up to date with how you get on I have just started a save with Boston in the Conf North.

Have you managed to find any decent players that are willing to sign on loan or free agent?

 

[alyndavies]

I've experimented with Darlington a bit, I've put the team back in the Darlington Arena, and given them a backstory with a rich chairman and a selection of players who are sons of famous players, or wonderkids from previous versions of CM and FM, who haven't made it as successful in football like their fathers did, or like they were expected to do.

To be honest it's been quite a fun experiment in taking up a lower league team with an ambitions chairman and some money to spend, along with some famous surnames in the team, even if the players are nothing like their fathers were.

[CHALLENGE] - Take Darlington up the divisions - (last edit 22/12/2020) -

CLICK THE MEDIAFIRE DOWNLOAD LINK BELOW: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/d5zqg9lf7ghjk/DARLINGTON 29/12/2020 - Edit if you download the Darlington / Gibraltar version, I have changed a lot of created players nationalities to Gibraltar, so you can have the triple challenge of Managing...

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