Angry Darlington chairman Raj Singh has revealed his frustration at the perception that he had not sufficiently backed former manager Mark Cooper in the transfer market.

Cooper left the club on Monday evening after what has been a deeply disappointing start to the season that sees Darlington languishing in 14th spot in the Blue Square Premier table after 18 games.

But the chairman last night spoke out to say that Cooper had been given finances that should have ensured Quakers competed with "the top three or four in the Conference".

Cooper had frequently pointed that he was unable to compete with several of the club's promotion rivals, and believed his budget was only around the tenth highest in the division.

In August he said: "We can't compete financially with Luton, Fleetwood, Mansfield, York and Newport.

"Like in any walk of life, you get what you pay for. Man City buy the best players, so that gives them a better chance of winning the Premier League, and it's the same in our division."

Singh has maintained a silence on the subject until now, but last night said: "It wouldn't normally be my style to reveal our budget, and I've deliberately avoided talking about it so not to put any unnecessary pressure on the manager and the players.

"But there seems to be a lot of misguided opinion among fans and the media, and I feel I have to make it clear to our supporters that if budgets determined league positions, we'd be guaranteed a play-off place this season, and I have the financial facts to back that up.

"The Dan Burn transfer fee did help us last season and went some way to reducing our losses, but besides that added income it was a similar budget.

"We put together a very strong budget, one which I know is in the top three or four in the Conference, and while money doesn't guarantee you anything in this world, our league position certainly doesn't justify the investment.

"When you take into account the loan signings we've made, signing-on fees, the cost of terminating contracts and other bits and bobs on top of salaries, our football budget is currently somewhere between £900,000 and £1m a year - and I'd be interested to learn of any clubs with a bigger bill than that in the Conference, other than the obvious one or two."

In his programme notes for Saturday's FA Cup game against Hinckley United, Singh adds: "I was chatting to one of the directors at Cambridge United a few weeks ago, and I was shocked to hear that their budget is almost half of ours.

"He also told me they'd be happy to finish between seventh and tenth this season - they comfortably beat us 2-0 and are currently fifth in the table.

"I'm pretty sure most managers at this level would love to have the resources I've provided this season, and to be fair we do have a very strong squad on paper, full of quality players."

A constant source of frustration to Cooper was that he missed out on Jason Walker who moved from Luton to York City for £60,000 and has already bagged 13 goals, including one against Quakers.

Singh believes Darlington could have captured the striker had Cooper used the funds available to him differently.

Cooper created a squad featuring a number of former Football League players, and Singh believes that will give the next manager an opportunity to take the club up the table.

"Fans who watch a lot of football at this level will tell you how strong our squad is, and I'm confident our new manager will be looking forward to seeing what he can do with this group of players,'' added the chairman.

"That's what makes our position all the more unacceptable, and when you go to teams like Braintree Town, no disrespect to them, and only get one shot on target against a side who'd conceded 16 goals in their four previous games, the writing is on the wall.

"We tried desperately hard to put things right and the so-called vote of confidence a few weeks ago was the last throw of the dice.

" It seemed to work, albeit temporarily, but the Barrow and Braintree games brought new lows and I felt I had to act."