Firstly, I unfortunately broke my foot playing football this week. So, with a pot on, I was unable to drive to Cheshire, and as I was unwilling to pay the £98 return train fare, I found myself at a loose end.
A Saturday afternoon without football is not a prospect that fills me with joy, but luckily my 8 year old son Emerson came to the rescue.
‘Why don’t we go to the Darlington match instead?’ he asked on Thursday.
He had been hearing about their plight on the news all week and did not want to see his local club go under.
'If we go it will help save them,’ he said ‘And I can put all my Christmas money into the pot.’
How could I not respond to such a heart-felt plea?
The town had been full of news of the club all week. After almost going out of business on Tuesday, they were saved by the late intervention of a fans consortium, and there was a buzz around the place for the weekend visit of Conference leaders Fleetwood.
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| The Northern Echo Arena |
I had heard that fans from all over the country were planning on making the trip to help save the club, so Emerson asked if he could wear his Daggers top to the game. Under normal circumstances I would not encourage him to wear a shirt of a team he is not watching, but I made an exception on this occasion.
Despite being me hobbling about on my crutches, we made our way to the stadium to find a most unusual scene – a long queue for tickets.
With the scheduled kick off time of 3pm fast approaching we were informed it had been put back fifteen minutes to allow everyone to get in. Surely this was a first for Darlo, as the stadium holds 25,000, even if it is restricted to around 10,000 for safety reasons.
Amongst the fans in the queue were inevitably some from local sides Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle, but there were also some from further afield, such as Arsenal, Liverpool and of course Emerson and me representing Dagenham.
Once in the ground I was amazed at the atmosphere. Having been there several times over the last 10 years, there has never been much of a crowd and it always felt rather flat, but this actually felt like a proper football match.
I began to feel a little sorry for Fleetwood. They were second in the league and going for promotion but had arrived to all the drama surrounding Darlo. The local and national media were out in full force and it felt like the game was far more important than just a run-of-the-mill fifth tier league encounter. For Darlo, of course, it was.
Despite selling many of their best players, Darlington actually played really well. Yes, they lacked quality, particularly up front, but no one could question their commitment to the cause. They worked extremely hard for 90 minutes and manager, Craig Liddell, must have been very proud of each and every one of them. The fact that they announced Liddell and the whole Darlington team as man of the match at the end was the perfect tribute.
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| Darlo's Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (left), battles for possession with Fleetwood's Richard Brodie |
A couple of early half-chances for Darlo brought the crowd to their feet, although I was unable to stand due to the pain in my foot, and had they scored at this point the place would have erupted.
But just before the break Fleetwood broke out to take the lead. A mistake from Darlo centre back Graeme Lee enabled Andy Mangan to run clear, and after his effort hit the post, Danny Rose followed up to smash the ball home.
Fleetwood did seem a little overawed by the occasion and rarely showed the form that had taken them into the top two, but their extra bit of quality had proved decisive when it really mattered.
Darlo’s best chance of the entire match arrived straight from the restart following the goal, but Fleetwood keeper Scott Davies produced a fine save to deny Ryan Bowman.
The second half followed a similar pattern, with Darlo huffing and puffing but rarely looking like finding an equaliser. They had their moments though, mainly from the odd goalmouth scramble in the closing stages, but it finished 1-0, although the day was not really about the result.
A crowd of nearly 6,000 should give the club the much needed funds to allow them to continue for a few more weeks at least, but I could not help but wonder why it had taken things to get this bad for the locals to finally show how much they care about their club? |
| Darlo fans show the passion they have for their club. |
The fans singing ‘Darlo will never die’ obviously sang it with feeling, but if they had all bothered to come a little earlier maybe things would not have got to this point in the first place?
I actually felt a little guilty that I had not done more myself. Having moved to the area 10 years ago this was only the 8th time I had been to a game here, and three of those were to watch the Daggers. Yes, my allegiances lie elsewhere, but Darlo are my local team now and I should have come here more often. The £30 Emerson and me put in the pot today will help, but it was far too little too late.
‘Can we come to more Darlo home games when we aren’t going to Arsenal or Dagenham?’ asked Emerson on the way home. While most of his school friends are only interested in Manchester United and the Premier League, he is more worried about the plight of his local club. A lesson for all of us there.
‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘Of course we can.’
The passion of the fans in the stands and the players on the pitch made us both realise just how important this club is. I just hope there will be many more games for us to go to in the future.
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