Brian Little only spent a relatively short time as Darlington's manager - but his impact in that time was huge.

After two extremely successful years he left on a high, ensuring Feethams memories of his tenure will forever be looked back on with fondness.

In 1989-90 he masterminded the club's return to League football and the following year led Quakers to the Fourth Division championship - arguably the club's most exciting and glorious period.

"There was a buzz about the town, we were getting good crowds and it was a really exciting time," says Little, adding succinctly: "We had two years of bliss."

That one of those titles came in non-league football mattered not a jot to success-starved supporters and the club, who relished the rare opportunity to make use of the silver polish.

Little arrived in February 1989 with the club bottom of the League and staring relegation to the GM Vauxhall Conference squarely in the face.

It turned into a two-way fight with Colchester to avoid the drop, but a late April home defeat to their relegation rivals was the cruellest blow.

The fact that Little recalls the game as being the most memorable from his success-laden two years sums up its magnitude.

He said: "You might assume the game I remember most from the whole of my time there is one of the more positive results, but it's the one which perhaps sealed our relegation.

"We were head-to-head with Colchester and lost at home to them which virtually told us we were going to be relegated.

"That was a horrible day, but it can be good to have them days because it means you work harder to make sure they don't happen again.''

A week later, and with the fight knocked out of their hearts, a 5-1 defeat at Scunthorpe condemned Quakers to an indefinite life outside the Football League.

They were only the third club to suffer following new rules introduced in the late 80s.

Lincoln had returned at the first attempt while Newport County were relegated in their first season at Conference level, and have never bounced back and never will.

A huge test faced the club, and they entrusted a 35-year-old without any experience of management the task of hauling the club back to League level.

Little began piecing together a new squad, bringing in a few journeymen, mixing them with younger players, while a few of the relegated team stayed for the ride.

"It was the kind of situation that I think every manager at that level would relish because I was almost given a clean slate," said Little.

"I ended up with virtually everybody out of contract and able to start from scratch. I was left with about four or five and brought in about 14 players.

"I went out and got a new team with players like Mark Prudhoe and Andy Toman coming in.

"The signing of Kevan Smith was important, David Cork had a tremendous season and I thought Toman and Gary Gill were as an energetic midfielders as you could ask for.

"Gary Coatsworth was an ideal squad player because you could stick him in the team anywhere and he would just get on with it.

"His goal at Welling will always be remembered, but unfortunately his career was ended by injury.

"For the League players like Smith it was a big decision to drop into the Conference.

"There was more of a stigma attached to the Conference back then - these days it's almost part of the Football League - but we stayed full-time professional and I think we were flag-bearers in that respect.

"When I went to Darlington one of my objectives was to bring back as many North-East lads as possible.

"I managed to do that and it was pretty much a homegrown team to a point with lads from York up to Durham way.

"Fortunately they gelled together quickly and the belief and the desire that Frank Gray and I had to get promoted rubbed off."

Although nobody at Darlington wanted Conference football, that one-year sojourn into non-league turned out to be very exciting - full of trips to never-before-seen grounds, a mini-FA Cup run and 26 League wins from 42 matches.

Little reflects: "Over the years me and Kevan have laughed about some of the tougher games we had in that season.

"There was a one game at Northwich Victoria where Prudhoe ended up in hospital, but there were many, many tough games.

"The last game in the Conference when Coatsworth scored at Welling was tremendous and probably ranks over and above winning promotion from the Fourth to Third."

A home match with Welling, abandoned due to thick fog with Quakers 1-0 up sticks in the memory, as does a home defeat in the final straight to Wycombe Wanders, then managed by Martin O'Neill.

But rather like your first day at school, the Conference wasn't as bad as feared, in fact it was quite enjoyable.

But Darlington and Little were mightily relieved once it was all over.

Little was ably assisted by former Leeds United left-back Gray and taking care of the reserve and youth teams was Tony McAndrew, who followed Little to Leicester and then Aston Villa where he is now youth team coach.

The trio masterminded the success during which time the core of the squad remained the same with only a handful leaving.

Prudhoe's performances between the sticks were immense, Smith and Jimmy Wills were rocks at the back, Steve Mardenborough was supremely quick on the wing and the majority of the goalscoring was done by Cork and John Borthwick, but despite their starring performances, it's the current Darlington boss with whom Little credits as being his best signing.

He said: "People have asked me over the years who has been my best signing and I think, given his displays, Mick Tait was probably it, and that includes all the signings I've made at clubs since then.

"He was extremely quiet, he just got on with his job and was unbelievably efficient. But, oh crikey, he was a hard lad and he gave us a bit of an edge when we went back into the Football League.

"We just had to make sure there was always a nice pint of beer waiting for him because he liked a drink in those days."

Tait, Prudhoe, Smith et al delivered Quakers' second successive title at home to Rochdale in May 1999 with over 9,000 packed in Feethams.

Remarkably, even though the top four were promoted that season, Darlington were not even assured of promotion until beating Rochdale, but goals from Gray (penalty) and Cork clinched the title. Like all the best endings, Little left on a high, meaning supporters remember him for the good times. Who could begrudge him the opportunity to manage further up the ladder?

A decade later it's rare to see young managers being given their chance at bigger clubs having brought success to a club lower down the League.

Little was thrown in at the very deep end, but he passed the test and was rewarded accordingly.

He admits the apprenticeship served him well.

"After away matches, even though I was manager, we would stop outside Feethams, I would move the strips from the coach to the back of my car, drive to the main office, turn the alarms off at the ground, put all the kit away and then shut up shop," he says.

"I bet there's not many managers who can say they have done that!

"When Irene, the secretary, would leave work at about 4pm, me and Frank would man the phones, we used to do a bit of everything. It was a good grounding."

Promotion to the Premiership with Leicester earned him the Aston Villa job and a return to the club where he spent his entire playing career.

A Wembley success in the 1995 League Cup was his solitary trophy win for Villa and since then he's managed West Brom, Stoke City and Hull City; none with the same success achieved at Darlington and insists he ne ver regretted leaving Feethams.

"I just knew I had to go, it was a journey I knew I had to go on," he says.

"Because of injury, football was taken away from me at the age of 25 so I knew it was the right time to leave in attempt to manage at the top level and I did that with some success.

"I think people understand why I had to leave, but it is a town and a club that I think of very dearly.

"Darlington and Hull are the two clubs I most enjoyed working at because they were very happy clubs which mean a lot to people. I've had more job satisfaction, but not as much money mind you, from working at Hull and Darlington than anywhere.

"My achievements at Darlington rank right up there with everything I've done. Without that time I wouldn't have ended up at Leicester, Villa and other places.

"I keep in touch with everything that's going on up there because I speak to Kevan Smith a lot and he keeps me informed and I always make sure I find out their results.

"I have very fond memories, I had a great two-and-a-bit years, you can't really ask for much better than two championships.

"After going out of the League we had two fantastic seasons where nothing went wrong for me and what's funny is that, at that time, I thought management was easy.

"In the years since I've realised it isn't always quite as easy as that."

Read more about the Quakers here.