AT the end of its 125th season, the future looks extremely bleak for Darlington Football Club today.

With the deadline for bids having been extended, there appears precious little room for optimism that a deal will be done.

The only bid on the table – from Teesside businessman Raj Singh – has been described by the administrators as “unworkable” and there is no alternative.

Mr Singh and former chairman George Houghton appear to be miles apart in what each is willing to accept, and that stalemate means the club is on the brink of going out of the Football League.

We feel particularly sorry for those members of staff, including assistant manager Martin Gray and goalkeeping coach Andy Collett, who were made redundant last night.

Gray has given Darlington loyal service and was instrumental in organising Sunday’s fundraising match featuring Paul Gascoigne, but his efforts now appear to have been in vain.

Even at the eleventh hour, we hope the stalemate can be broken. As it stands, no one wins and everyone loses – George Houghton, Raj Singh, the long-suffering supporters, and the town itself.

That is an extremely sad state of affairs and we repeat our heartfelt appeal to Mr Houghton to bend over backwards to reach an agreement with the only man to have made a formal offer.

The stark alternative is that the stadium George Reynolds famously built will be mothballed for the foreseeable future – an embarrassing testament to a dream that went terribly wrong.