Worst Quakers season – bar none (From The Northern Echo)

Worst Quakers season – bar none

9:58am Monday 22nd March 2010 in

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THE evening before Steve Staunton’s final match the Morritt Arms won a raffle to become Darlington’s new shirt sponsors, a quirk of fate that offers an easy opportunity to brand Quakers a pub team.

Perhaps a lazy and harsh observation, but their results during this extraordinarily poor season simply invite ridicule.

Darlington are going down in ignominious manner and Staunton’s sacking has come too late to prevent a string of unwanted ‘achievements’.

Saturday’s defeat to Barnet was the 26th in 34 games, which makes it 12 home losses for the season, the second most in the club’s history.

Without a win in nine outings, they are stuck on 16 points and will set a new benchmark for the club’s lowest total since three points for a win was introduced, which stands at 37 in 1986/87 and 1991/92.

Raj Singh had seen quite enough so he called time yesterday morning, although the timing will have come as a surprise to some.

What’s to be achieved by sacking a manager when the season is already a lost cause?

Yet Saturday’s programme offered a clue as to what lay ahead with Singh’s comments making intriguing reading.

Regarding upcoming offthe- field activities, the chairman referred to generating money “to support the manager during pre-season”. Note the lack of specific reference to Staunton.

Singh may point out this was due to Staunton’s contract lasting only until the end of the season, but it was hardly a full-blooded backing of the man he appointed last October to replace Colin Todd.

Rightly so, because the Irishman had done little to instil belief that brighter times lay ahead and the dismissal gives his successor, whoever he may be, time to prepare for an assault on the Blue Square Premier.

Staunton would argue that he should have been afforded that time, a pre-season in which to wheel and deal as well as instil his ideas on the squad, something he has been trying to do since October.

And nobody could argue he did not try.

Staunton brought in 23 players – which equates to one for every game under his tenure – yet improvement following Todd’s exit was minimal.

In fact, his final nine matches mirror Todd’s ninematch spell: W0 D2 L7.

When Todd left, Darlington were bottom and the gap to third-bottom was five points. Quakers have remained 24th and that gap has increased to a chasm – 19 points.

True, performances have marginally picked up on occasions and at least it now looks as though there may be goals in the team, which was not always the case prior to Christmas.

But points are of paramount importance, not performances, which Staunton was well aware of and perhaps explains last week’s charm offensive with the media.

Having recently spoken with Singh to discuss extending his contract, in Thursday’s press briefing Staunton was suddenly more forthcoming, his prickly nature cast aside in favour of a more open approach that saw him give twice as much of his time as usual.

He was not easy to like, and had failed to build up a rapport with the media, fans or, most importantly, his own players.

He was equally distant during his time in charge of the Republic of Ireland.

The Irishman achieved much as a player with his intense approach taking him to the top with Liverpool and Aston Villa, but it did not chime with all of the Darlington squad and led to clashes with several of those within the dressing room who were already at the club before his arrival.

It was a misguided move to cast aside experienced pros, such as Steve Foster, and led to a split dressing room that perhaps partly explains this calamitous season. It reached its latest crisis point on Saturday.

The defeat was almost irrelevant, Quakers are going down regardless of their results in the final two months, but it was the 1,463 attendance figure that alarmed Singh.

It represented the club’s lowest gate for 17 years – since February, 1993 when Billy McEwan’s side lost to Shrewsbury at Feethams in front of 1,422 – and it will have concerned the chairman that few fans would be rushing out to buy a season ticket.

The supporters are watching the worst team in the club’s history. It’s soul destroying, it’s humiliating and there have been few signs of it getting any better.

Which is why Singh hopes that acting now will signal the beginning of a recovery.

The pressure is on to avoid another calamitous appointment.