AFTER four years playing in Bishop Auckland, Darlington are edging closer to returning to the town at Blackwell Meadows, while manager Martin Gray has agreed a five-year contract. Deputy Sports Editor Craig Stoddart speaks to Gray, who is laying the foundations for another promotion challenge

IT’S been quite a week for Darlington. Last night they announced they will play their first game at Blackwell Meadows in December, they have launched a long-awaited reserve side, and on Wednesday their youth team scaled new heights.

Furthermore, manager Martin Gray has agreed a five-year contract, another piece in a jigsaw which has been ongoing since the summer of 2012, slowly and steadily being put back together.

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After winning 7-1 at Whitby Town in the penultimate match of last season, Quakers won the Northern Premier League with 104 points

The puzzle was in pieces four years ago following the financial implosion of 2011-12 under the guidance of chairman Raj Singh. Much like the ECB’s treatment this week of Durham County Cricket Club, the Football Association’s response was severe, relegating Quakers four divisions, from the Conference to the Northern League – from Wembley to West Auckland in 18 months.

Quakers had won the FA Trophy at the national stadium in 2011, a year after relegation from the Football League, and, as far as Gray is concerned, the jigsaw will not be complete until the club are back in what’s now named the EFL.

Achieving the ambition represents two more promotions and, he admits, would require financial backing as well as time.

He’s been in charge since the beginning of the Northern League season, leading the club to promotion in three of his four years, but the higher the club rises, the tougher the challenge becomes.

“It’s my dream to get into the Football League, it’s no fairytale, it’s achievable given the right financial support,” said Gray. “You can’t do it in two seasons, you need a good four or five years.

“I’d love to get back-to-back promotions again, but it’s a tall ask. Given time to plan and develop, and put the right infrastructure in place to go again, that’s what hopefully we’ll be allowed to do again.

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Gray celebrates with fans after Darlington won the Northern League title at the end of the 2012-13 season, his first year in charge of the club

“One thing’s for sure, we will not be resting on our laurels. My coaching team, our scouting system, they are as important as I am. Brian Atkinson, Sean Gregan, Harry Dunn, they have played a massive part and it’s credit to everybody that we have progressed as far as we have and we want to keep going.”

Keep going, focus on the next game – both are favoured phrases in the Gray lexicon.

During his four and a bit seasons as manager he’s built a selection of soundbites, regulars including ‘getting back to winning ways’ and ‘looking for a reaction’ following disappointing results, ‘there’s no easy games’ is a favourite too.

‘We’re challenging at the right end of the table’, has become his stock answer whenever asked about league position, which has consistently been somewhere near the top throughout Gray’s tenure.

Today’s game at Brackley will be his 213th in the dug-out since taking on the challenge of being boss at a club he first joined as a player in 1999, then served as a youth coach and assistant manager before leaving in 2009 for Oldham Athletic.

At Boundary Park he was No. 2 to ex-Quakers boss Dave Penney, but the post lasted only a year, at which point he dropped out of the pro game and focused on launching the Martin Gray Football Academy, an ever-expanding project which is now in 60 schools across the North-East, overseeing upwards of 2,000 pupils each week and employing 20 staff.

Gray has had the same relentless approach to Darlington, a task he took on with the club in the fifth level of non-league football with only two players on the books and no home.

While it’s been a challenging and rewarding period on the pitch, coming a long way in a short space of time, it has not been without complications off it – a year ago the club’s Heading Home slogan was subtly dropped – but Darlington finally plan to head home in December.

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Gray in his playing days, pictured in a match against Macclesfield in 1999

With Feethams long gone and The Northern Echo Arena a painful memory, Blackwell will become home, where work is well under way. Steelwork was erected this week and concrete for the new Tin Shed arrived on site yesterday.

It’s the culmination of fans’ fundraising efforts and club officials’ countless hours of negotiations with various bodies meaning that, after over 100 games as tenants at Heritage Park, Quakers will groundshare with Darlington Rugby Club, and the much-anticipated move should put Quakers on a firmer footing.

There’s potential to grow beyond the initial 3,000 capacity, although nobody wants a 25,000 all-seater stadium, attendances are up and there is huge interest in the homecoming.

“I’ve always said that I want to take this club back into the Football League, that hasn’t changed, but the major reason that I have committed to a new contract is the return to Darlington,” said Gray, whose team are at home to Salford on December 3, Halifax on the 26th and will have an FA Trophy tie on the 10th if they win in the previous round in late November.

“I wanted to see that happen, I wanted to see the machines down there at Blackwell building the stands, and now it’s happening, it’s real. We’ve got foundations there to push on to the next level.

“I know I got a bit of stick in the summer from players who didn’t sign for us, saying we had no home or whatever. You want your own office, your own base, it gives you so much more to offer.

“We’ve got some really good ideas going forward, from the youth team through to the next level, something I feel has always been missing.”

The MGFA has built the foundations for the club’s youth programme, students studying at Darlington College are in the youth team, and on Wednesday the teenagers created a small piece of history by overcoming Clitheroe 2-1 in second qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup.

Since the current era of the club began in 2012, it is the first time Darlington have put three wins together in the competition – if only the senior side could make similar progress in the FA Cup!

The club’s newly-launched reserve team should help provide a pathway to the first team for the juniors. Quakers have taken over the running of Horden in the Wearside League, and games will be played on the newly-installed artificial surface at Eastbourne Sports Complex.

The talented teens, though, are for the future, the here and the now being Gray’s senior team, which is third in the National League North, and the next piece in the puzzle is reaching the Conference.

Darlington’s finishing positions under Gray have been first, second, second and first, making for an eye-catching CV, and another elevation would not escape the interest of clubs higher up the pyramid.

“I had two offers in the summer, one in the Conference and one in the Football League, and they were both good offers,” revealed Gray.

“There was no way I was going to leave, but the club had to be made aware of it.

“There’s a clause in there now which means they would get some money for a change. That’s important because if somebody does come along why should the club lose out on a financial opportunity?

“I want to embed the club in the Conference or Football League. There’s a lot of work to do between now and then and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.

“It would have to be something special to drag me away from here, because this club is special to me, and I mean that.

“My focus is on Darlington and when the opportunity comes up you look at it then, but it’s all pie in the sky because I’m Darlington’s manager and I have a job to do here.

“Being here has been my career in management since I stopped being a player in 2001. Fifteen years later the club is in a real good place and I am so proud to be managing here.

“When you’ve been involved with a club for so long, win lose or draw, you develop a strong feeling for it.

“There have been hard times since I joined the club in 1999 and I want to give the fans some real good memories, I want to win more games than we lose, hopefully challenge for more promotions.

“It is a pleasure and a privilege to manage the club.”