ALL might have been quiet on the pitch over the last week or so but it seems like off the field activities have more than made up for the lack of football. All of a sudden, Blackwell Meadows seems to be taking shape nicely and we’ve acquired a reserve team.

The timing of this evening’s fans’ forum seems to be perfect. It’s almost as though someone planned the timing around a number of developments coming to fruition… After several weeks where visible development had slowed down due to the foundations setting, this week has seen Blackwell Meadows bounce back into life with the steelwork being erected. Out of nowhere, you can now begin to visualise what our new home will look like beyond the artist’s impressions. While the builders are effectively playing big-boy Mechano with prefabricated units, it is impressive how quickly they are progressing.

Hopefully, tonight, we’ll get a better idea of when we can move in. There seems to be some speculation that it could be December 3 against Salford City. If that’s the case, great. If it takes a bit longer, I hope the club are sensible about when they do move in, such as avoiding opening against a side that will want a significant number of tickets such as Halifax on Boxing Day.

If returning to Darlington is the ultimate way of developing the club, a further significant step is the club obtaining an effective reserve team, something the club have announced this week. Again, details will no doubt be fleshed out at the forum but this really is a positive step for the club. Martin Gray has been trying to organise a reserve team almost from day one since taking charge. A failed bid last year to enter a team in to the Wearside League appeared to have scuppered any chance of a meaningful reserve team, but the news that we are taking over the financially stricken Horden is great.

If you’re not acquainted with the Wearside League, it’s a cracking competition. At the top end, it is probably better than the Northern League second division. It’s physical, the football is a decent standard and it’s the ideal proving ground for some of the young players we have coming through the club. While it would be a stretch for kids to come through the reserves and straight in to the first team, what it will do is get them up to a standard where they can be loaned out to the best Northern League and NPL clubs to complete their development.

On the pitch, we’ve had players leave. Amar Purewal has moved to Shildon on loan, Adam Nowakowski has moved on a similar deal to Bradford Park Avenue and Lewis Nightingale has completed a permanent move back to Farsley. For the latter, I suspect it was just not meant to be. For Purewal and Nowakowski, I have a sneaky feeling that similar permanent moves may be in the offing.

Saturday sees us make one of our longest trips of the season to Brackley Town. Hopefully, some of our walking wounded will be ready to return following the break. Brackley have had a solid start to the season only losing two games, both at home, and have a solid defence, conceding 13 in 12 games.

With the crazy run of fixtures through August and September done and players having now had a decent break, I would expect us to find some consistency in our performances; more like the Stalybridge game and less like Nuneaton, Bradford and Lancaster. If we keep the ball down and utilise our more skilful players like we did in the Stalybridge game, October should be a good month for us.