AFTER a groundshare agreement was this week signed with Darlington Rugby Club, Quakers supporters are now being encouraged to attend the club’s two pre-season friendlies at The Northern Echo Arena.

Darlington face under-21s sides from Newcastle United and Sunderland on Saturday and Tuesday respectively at the Arena – the club’s first games in the town since 2012.

Martin Gray’s side will continue to play at Bishop Auckland’s Heritage Park when the season starts in August, but will move to Blackwell Meadows midway through the campaign once work on upgrading the facilities is complete. An announcement on contractors for the work will be made soon.

The Darlington FC Supporters Group is eager to point out that Quakers still depend on fans attending matches in their numbers, starting on Saturday at the Arena.

“It is a hugely exciting period for the club but we should remember that this is just the beginning of the journey and there still lay many challenges ahead,” said Wayne Raper, chairman of the DFCSG.

“Playing at Heritage Park brings its own revenue challenges and we urge all fans to continue attending and to bring new and lapsed fans to games at Bishop Auckland rather than waiting for our return to Darlington.

“Please also come along to the home friendlies and grab your season tickets ASAP to enable the club to generate vital income needed for the forthcoming season it’s hugely important.”

On Tuesday Darlington announced that the “Licence to Groundshare” at Blackwell Meadows and commercial agreements have been signed, quelling fears among some supporters that playing at the Arena could become a long-term move.

Raper added: “Darlington FC Supporters Group are delighted that the final hurdles to construction beginning at Blackwell Meadows have now been overcome and the club has signed a license to play football back in the town.

“The DFCSG has been working closely with the football club over the past few weeks to rubber stamp the deal which is a culmination of a huge amount of hard work and resilience behind the scenes from football club, rugby club and council officials.

“The planning for the proposed move to Blackwell Meadows started over three years ago; in that time the club has been subject to a large amount of change at board level, this, coupled with no less than seven separate entities having an interest in the project has meant negotiations have been incredibly complex and time consuming.

“The DFCSG’s conditions for triggering the community share pledges have also been satisfied by the latest developments and we will now be contacting all pledgees individually over the next couple of days to trigger the seven days’ notice which is required to release payment.”

Tickets for the Arena games can be bought on the day of each game, while they can also be purchased from Quaker Retail in the Dolphin Centre tomorrow Friday (10am-1pm).