TWENTY years ago today Darlington played at Wembley for the first time and now the team is getting back together to celebrate what was a special time for the club and its fans.

The 1995-96 season lives long in the memory as a young Quakers team brimming with talent and playing an attractive brand of football came so close to promotion from Division Three.

They agonisingly missed out on the last day of the season – drawing 3-3 at Scunthorpe when a win would have seen them go up – and then lost 1-0 in the play-off final at Wembley to a Plymouth Argyle team managed by Neil Warnock.

Nonetheless, a season in which Darlington lost only once away from home and featured talents such as Sean Gregan, Matty Appleby, Robbie Blake and Gary Bannister is remembered fondly so a get-together is being arranged and it is the brainchild of Robbie Painter, another favourite of the era.

Played at Northallerton Town on Sunday, July 31 (2pm kick-off), the 1996 side will take on a Darlington XI of former players and Painter is looking forward to the occasion.

Scorer of 33 goals in Quakers colours during the 1990s and now a physiotherapist based in Leeds, he said: “I first thought about it last year when there was a Darlington book launch with a few former players. It would be a shame not to celebrate what we did.

“I put a message about a game on the Tin Shed Facebook page a week ago and everything has snowballed from there. Within seven days everything has gone bonkers, it’s escalated from playing a match against fans’ to playing against other former Darlo players and it should be great.

“David Hodgson is going to be the manager of the 1996 team and we’ve got loads of players on board: Mark Barnard, Phil Brumwell, Simon Shaw, Sean Gregan, Steve Gaughan and I’m still trying to get in touch with a few others.

“It’s been really good speaking to the lads again and everyone is really looking forward to the match.”

Prior to 95-96 Darlington had been in the doldrums. They finished 15th, 21st and 20th in the seasons following relegation from the third tier in ’92, so were revitalised by Hodgson and Platt’s appointment as joint managers at the end of 94-95, a season which ended with 11 losses in 14 games. The dreadful run saw Paul Futcher briefly appointed as manager and sacked ten matches later.

In came the naturally gifted Bannister, a top-flight player with QPR and Coventry, as well as Portuguese attackers Pedro Paulo and Rui Neves while players at the club when Darlington had been in the lower reaches of the table were just as significant.

Gary Himsworth, Simon Shaw, Paul Olsson, Steve Gaughan and Painter were all heavily involved, and a five-game winning run in October saw Hodgson and Platt named managers of the month.

Platt took sole charge in December when Hodgson stepped down amid a disagreement with the board over selling players. His final game an FA Cup draw at Rochdale, Quakers losing the replay when at stake was a trip to Liverpool in the third round.

But Quakers recovered. With Appleby playing a starring role as a sweeper and Bannister pulling the strings behind the two Robbies - Painter and Blake - Darlington finished the season strongly.

They finished fifth after losing only once in their last 20 league games, including a 4-0 demolition of promotion rivals Bury at Feethams a fortnight before the end of the season.

It was Bury, however, who took the final automatic promotion place after Darlington’s draw at Scunthorpe, but Quakers swiftly overcame that heartbreak by beating Hereford United in the play-off semi-finals, 2-1 both and home and away with Painter and Appleby scoring at an ecstatic Feethams.

Then came Wembley. In front of 43,341, most of them from Devon, Ronnie Mauge headed home the only goal in the second half, enough to defeat a Darlington team which had beaten Plymouth home and away in the league.

Painter added: “We were unlucky not to go up on the last day of the season at Scunthorpe and it was disappointing not to win at Wembley, but we did well to get that far and it was a special time for the club.

“We had a very good team and a lot of players went on to play at a much higher level.”

Gregan, Blake and Appleby all played in the Premier League, the latter man of the match at Wembley in his final Darlington appearance before joining Barnsley.

Appleby is among those Painter is yet to trace and would also appreciate assistance in locating Bannister, Mike Pollitt, Paul Newell, Matt Carmichael, Gary Twynham and Anthony Carrs.

Andy Crosby, Quakers’ skipper at Wembley on this day in 1996, and Platt are unavailable for the match in July which will see money raised for charity.

Admission is £5 with profits split 50/50 between The Back To Darlo Fund and The Percy Hedley School for disabled children.

Among the former Darlington XI will be: Alan White, Andy Toman, Dale Anderson, Roger Wicks, Danny Mellanby.