THERE can’t have been too many instances in the history of Darlington when both their manager and their top goalscorer were once top goalscorers at Roker Park, Sunderland.

Yet that was the case 60 years ago when Bob Gurney, Sunderland’s all-time top goalscorer with 228 goals from 388 appearances, was the manager at Feethams, Darlington in the 1955-56 season while Dickie Davis, along with Keith Morton, was the top goalscorer with 14 goals at Feethams for the 1955-56 season.

Davis was the top goalscorer at Roker Park, Sunderland and the Division 1 top goalscorer with 25 goals in the 1949-50 season.

Perhaps it was down to Bob Gurney being manager, but what is even more interesting, is that twice in the 1955-56 season the entire Darlington forward line had a connection with Sunderland.

On Saturday, September 24, 1955, against Grimsby at home, lost 0-1, and Saturday October 15 1955 at home to Crewe, won 4-1, the Darlington forward line was Spuhler, Bell, Morton, Davis and Reynolds.

Outside right Johnny Spuhler had made 35 League and Cup appearances for Sunderland 1936-39, scoring 5 goals.

Inside right Harry Bell was born in Castletown, Sunderland and may have played some War-time games for the Black Cats while centre forward Keith Morton was on Sunderland’s books but never played a game for them.

Inside left Dickie Davis, played 7 seasons at Sunderland, made 154 League and Cup appearances and scored 79 goals. Finally outside left Tom Reynolds made 171 appearances for Sunderland from 1946-54 and scored 18 goals.

On Saturday, October 15, 1955, in Darlington’s 4-1 win over Crewe all the goals came from the Sunderland men in the forward line with Davis scoring 2 and Morton and Reynolds one each.

Sixty years ago, on Saturday, February 11, 1956, Darlington met Bradford Park Avenue at home in a Third Division North fixture.

The Darlington team was: Clish, Devlin, Henderson, Edgar, Greener, Rutherford, Clark, Bell, Morton, Davis, Reynolds.

The Northern Echo’s reporter, Darneton, wrote: “On a snow covered pitch Darlington were by far the more workmanlike and more accurate side and stung to action by Bradford’s early goal they scored four goals in the space of 24 minutes to gain their most comfortable victory of the season.”

Apart from a goal from Harry Clark on 16 minutes it was the Sunderland contingent who scored the rest with Morton 26 minutes, Reynolds 29 minutes and Davis 40 minutes all on the scoresheet.

At the end of the 1955-56 season Darlington finished 15th out of the 24 clubs in the Third Division North scoring 60 goals of which Davis and Morton scored 14 each, Reynolds 6 and Bell 4 and Spuhler 4, thus the Sunderland men contributed to 42 of the 60 goals.

Here are the Darlington career records for the five Sunderland men:

Johnny Spuhler 1954-56 74 League and Cup appearances and 21 goals for Darlington.

Harry Bell 1955-61 141 League and Cup appearances and 23 goals for Darlington.

Keith Morton 1955-61 194 League and Cup appearances and 55 goals for Darlington.

Dickie Davis 1954-57 105 League and Cup appearances and 35 goals for Darlington.

Tom Reynolds 1954-56 47 League and Cup appearances and 6 goals for Darlington.