A day at Darlo...

A couple of unusual events led me to being at Darlington on Saturday afternoon, instead of watching the Daggers from the press box at Crewe, as had been the original plan.

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.

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.

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 8^th 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.

My top 10 footballing moments of 2011

This time last year I wrote a top '10 Football Moments of the Year' and the hardest part was restricting it to just 10. It had been a great footballing year and I had to leave out many great memories. But this year the opposite is true. Just finding 10 moments has been a struggle, but I will try.

1. Peterborough 5 Daggers 0 - May

It may not seem like such a great memory on paper, but it was a great day to be a Dagger. To see over 1,000 fans make the trip for a match in which we needed a point to stay up was amazing, and the team did not let us down. Yes, we got hammered in the end by a team that were promoted to The Championship, but the lads were magnificent in the first half, and the emotional scenes at the end will live with me forever. To hear the passion from both John Still and Mark Arber at the end brought home just how much the club means to them.

2. Thornley Celtic 4 Darlington RA 2 - February

A little self-indulgence if I may. Having left the RA the previous September, after a new manager arrived and brought in his own players, me and a few of the lads joined struggling Thornley so were looking forward to this match. Darlington were in the top 4 and we were bottom, but with four ex-RA players in our team we tore them apart. I had the best game of my life, scoring 1, creating 2 others and getting man of the match, as we got our own little piece of revenge. It didn't help in the over-all scheme of things, as we were relegated in the end anyway, but for 90 minutes we played like Champions.

3. Manchester United 8 Arsenal 2 - August

Again not an obvious highlight, but the atmosphere in the second half made up for what was happening on the pitch. Singing 'We love you Arsenal, we do' for virtually the entire second period, even as United kept on scoring, was superb and were rewarded with a ticket refund from the club and some new signings a week later. Even now Emerson still talks about that match and, despite the result, he says it is his favourite ever away game.

4. Arsenal 2 Sunderland 1 - October

My 30th Anniversary match and a magical free kick from Robin van Persie made it day to remember. He also scored the fastest ever Emirates goal, after just 28 seconds, which meant we had witnessed a little piece of history as well. Many things had changed since my first match in 1981, not least the price of tickets, but one thing that hadn't was the feeling you get from seeing your team win. Now that is timeless.

5. Hartlepool 0 Daggers 1 - January

Almost the perfect away performance, especially for me with my North-East base. We soaked up the early pressure and then broke out to win it in the last few minutes. It was the start of a good run that almost kept us in League One, but was memorable for me due to an encounter with ex-Premier League referee Jeff Winter. He was broadcasting in the press box and mentioned Emerson and me in his post-match blog, after we apparently 'barged' past him. Of course he forgot to mention the fact that he had caused Emerson to spill a hot cup of tea but, having seen his refereeing performances down the years, I guess eyesight was never his strong point.

6. Leeds 1 Arsenal 3 - January

I was lucky enough to be in the front row for this televised FA Cup replay and was spotted by the TV cameras after each of our goals. To make the night even better I managed to catch Szczesny's gloves at the end of the match, when he threw them into the crowd - a lovely memento for Emerson, who was not allowed to go as it was a school night.

7. Rolls Royce 1 Richmond Town Vets 2 - August

Another piece of self-indulgence. The first match of the season for the newly-formed Richmond Town Vets and I scored both goals, including a last minute winner, as we got off to the perfect start. In fact it has been Richmond Town that has given me most to enjoy this footballing year, as we go into 2012 five points clear at the top of the league.

8. Daggers 2 Gillingham 1- December

After a difficult year, the Daggers at least ended it in style with this great win over the high-flying Gills. Despite going a goal down early on we fought back with two great goals from Billy Bingham and Brian Woodall to move up to the dizzy heights of 20th place. Having beaten Barnet on Boxing Day as well it means we can now look forward to the New Year with renewed hope of avoiding a second consecutive relegation.

9. Wigan 0 Arsenal 4 - December

In a year of so few highs, a 4-0 away win just has to be included. It was actually a very good game and showed the new-found confidence in the team. The fact that Chelsea and Liverpool only managed to draw here in the following couple of weeks made this result all the more impressive, and it did lift us briefly into the top 4.

10. Daggers 3 Carlisle 0 - April

It was a toss-up between this and the home win over Charlton in March, but this just made the cut for the importance of the match. It was our last home game of the season and we had to win to keep our survival hopes alive. As it turned out we played superbly throughout and the game included the last ever goal for the club by Danny Green, which made Emerson's day. However he later received a red card and that proved crucial in the end as he was suspended for the last match at Peterborough, a sad way to end his two years with us.

So there you have it. Not a vintage year by any means. The Daggers not only got relegated back to League Two but have spent a vast majority of this season in the bottom two, while Arsenal went from title contenders in January to a laughing stock by August. Thankfully things have ended on a high, with two great wins for the Daggers and a series of good performances from Arsenal that has seen them back challenging for a place in the top 4. Meanwhile, of course, my Richmond Town Vets team have gone from strength to strength as we challenge for the title going into the New Year.

Here's hoping for a better 2012...