Arnison ‘back from the dead’

A second bout of administration preceded last year’s woeful season – the worst in the club’s history – a campaign peppered with inept performances and woefully sub-standard players with relegation being the inevitable outcome.

Adding to the chaos has been a steady stream of new managers with, at the last count, five “permanent” bosses since May 2009. The list includes Ryan Kidd whose 12 days this summer gave him the shortest reign in Quakers’ history.

Darlington have had to endure little other than abject misery but the club now finally appears to be on a better footing and one player who can identify with Quakers’ trip to hell and back is Paul Arnison, the experienced defender who is “back from the dead”.

That is how manager Mark Cooper described him after the pre-season friendly with Sheffield Wednesday during which Arnison capped an impressive 90 minutes by scoring from the penalty spot.

He has made close to 300 appearances having had spells with Hartlepool, Carlisle and Bradford, and the 32-year-old will start the Blue Square Bet Premier season tomorrow as Darlington’s first-choice right-back.

He did likewise 12 months ago, but then Steve Staunton was appointed.

In a display of his authority as he sought to rule by fear, Staunton axed Arnison, made him train with the youth team, told him to stay away from the club on matchdays and then asked him to leave the club.

Understandably, the chastening experience led Arnison to consider quitting Quakers. A move into Northern League football beckoned and he even contemplated retiring from football and joining the fire service.

But stubbornly determined to prove Staunton wrong, the rightback waited for his next chance and today Cooper considers him one of Darlington’s reliable senior pros.

“I think my time last season is a perfect example of never giving up,” said Arnison. “I was working with the youth team every day for three or four months.

“I tried to stay professional, came into work and just hoped that the right thing would come my way.

Steve got sacked and things started looking up for me.

But before that was the worst time of my life.

“The trouble is I’d take it home with me to my family and my mates and they would get it, I wasn’t a nice person to be around. I felt frustrated.

“As a pro with a decent bit of service behind me it was embarrassing to be chucked in among the kids and forgotten about – that’s how it felt.

“You just want to play come a Saturday but the frustrating thing was I was told to keep away from the ground. You have to be strong inside and tough mentally or things like that can drag you down.”

Typical of Arnison’s shoddy treatment was the way he was suddenly thrust into a game at Rotherham in January having been firmly frozen out of first-team three months previously.

The sudden recall came when Staunton discovered that new signing Simon Madden was suspended, but the reprieve was not to last.

During half-time of the next game, at Crewe in January, with Quakers 3-0 down Staunton hauled off Arnison and did not select him again.

He earned another reprieve, though, when Craig Liddle became caretaker in the wake of the Irishman’s sacking, and immediately recalled Arnison who played for the remainder of the season.

“It got to the stage when I even spoke to Spennymoor manager Jason Ainsley about going there. But then Steve got the sack which I suppose was a change of luck for me.

“I got back in the team at the end of the season, thankfully when I got my chance I did alright, earned a new contract out of it, so I ended the season happy.”

That contract came during Simon Davey’s brief tenure, but Cooper is pleased that Arnison chose football over firefighting.

“You’ve got to take people on face value and since myself and Richard Dryden have been at the club Paul has been a different class,”

said Cooper.

“His performances have been good so I don’t see why I would leave him out of the team just because he wasn’t in the team last year. He’s made the right-back spot his own and as long as he keeps playing well he’ll keep it.

“He’s got a good pedigree in the game and he’s good in the changing room with the other players.

“To get results consistently you need a lot of good, experienced professionals who know the game and that’s Paul.”

Advice that Staunton would do well to heed in his next job.

Like Arnison, Darlington’s situation has improved with chairman Raj Singh and Cooper intending to put a smile back on supporters’ faces.

There is certainly one on Arnison’s face as he prepares for a second stab at the Conference having won the title in 2004-05 with Carlisle.

He said: “I hope to prove to the fans of Darlington and the club that I am capable of succeeding.

“Last season was a writeoff for me personally and I just want to prove people wrong.

“Having a good go at promotion is the aim and the manager has been bringing players in with that aim in mind.”