THE trademark crouch of David Hodgson is back and it is back at Darlington Football Club - some things never change in football.

Looking on from low in the manager's infringement area, Hodgson examined and directed his side's play as if he had never been away.

But if his coaching style has not changed in the three or so years he has been working in South America, life at the Quakers certainly has and it has not taken him long to notice.

Out has gone the old Feethams ground, the close-knit atmosphere, many of the club's play-off stars and the high expectancy levels from the supporters.

And in has come a sensational new ground which is badly in need of a few more thousand fans and the calibre of player who will fill the masses of empty red seats.

Hodgson may have only been in the job 14 days, but already he is gaining a growing picture of what is going to be required to help steer Darlington to safety.

Four players have left and three have arrived in the brief time the new boss has been at the helm and he will be carefully trying to plot more raids on the transfer market.

It was quite fitting during the Lincoln match when the PA system called for the club doctor to make his way to the dressing room immediately, as the whole side could have done with a heavy dose of medicine.

But after the interval Dr Hodgson must have dished out his own treatment to his confidence-lacking team and he very nearly guided Darlington to their first win since September.

That would have been the perfect homecoming for Hodgson and the start to his third spell in charge at the club he would have been dreaming about in the early hours of Saturday morning.

But the losing rot has stopped and the 4,600-plus fans, who had turned out to welcome back the prodigal son, were more than happy with the club's second-half performance under the new regime - a sign of the times perhaps?

Back in the successful 2000 campaign, when only a play-off final defeat to Peterborough cost them a place in Division Two, it was a case of disappointment if Darlington failed to win.

Now, though, a point is more than welcome as the club try to avoid dropping out of the Football League.

But, as the fans sung the manager's name at the final whistle, Hodgson and assistant Martin Gray will have been encouraged by aspects of Darlington's display.

And with a daunting trip to another of the Division Three promotion hopefuls, Swansea, the season starts here for Hodgson's Quakers.