EleanorRigby
New Member
Listening to Talk Sport last night a Darlington fan came on, it appears more than likely Darlington FC played their final game yesterday at Barrow. He went on and spoke about various things, reasons why etc, etc, and it was quiet emotional listening and you couldn't help comparing their problems with ours. He said Darlington used to play at Feethams an old ramshackled ground but did a job and they used to bounce between the third and fourth divisions for years, then a smart arsed chairman/owner took over and initially all were sucked in to his super duper plans for their club, and guess what ? they built a new ground, capacity 25000 for a club whose at the time average gate when doing well was about 7/8000, local derbies against the likes of rivals Carlisle and Hartlepool that would perhaps double or a bit more. He said the start of Darlington's decline coincided with the new ground venture, starting to sound familier.
He went on about various other things but spoke emotionally about their probable "last" day yesterday. The players at the end of a 3-0 defeat threw their shirts into the crowd, some wearing T-shirts with "thanks for the memories" on and the large contingent of Darlington supporters remaining behind as if in defiance that this was their final game, grown men crying. One poignent and lasting memory he said was witnessing three generations of supporter standing together obviously a grandfather, a father and son, the older guy aged about 80, all sobbing their eyes out.
It appears the bloke who took over ended up in jail didn't catch the full sp of all that too much to take in and remember to be honest.
Finally he said they were still clinging to a glimmer of hope of carrying on but was pessimistic about that, but did say poignantly and sort of warned others about those acquiring their football clubs and doing their own thing regardless of the fans and tellingly said" "
A FOOTBALL CLUB IS FOR LIFE NOT BUSINESS."
He went on about various other things but spoke emotionally about their probable "last" day yesterday. The players at the end of a 3-0 defeat threw their shirts into the crowd, some wearing T-shirts with "thanks for the memories" on and the large contingent of Darlington supporters remaining behind as if in defiance that this was their final game, grown men crying. One poignent and lasting memory he said was witnessing three generations of supporter standing together obviously a grandfather, a father and son, the older guy aged about 80, all sobbing their eyes out.
It appears the bloke who took over ended up in jail didn't catch the full sp of all that too much to take in and remember to be honest.
Finally he said they were still clinging to a glimmer of hope of carrying on but was pessimistic about that, but did say poignantly and sort of warned others about those acquiring their football clubs and doing their own thing regardless of the fans and tellingly said" "
A FOOTBALL CLUB IS FOR LIFE NOT BUSINESS."