TODAY has been a long time coming for Darlington, a momentous occasion and the beginning of a new era.

After a four and half-season exile at Bishop Auckland’s Heritage Park, Quakers can begin to call Blackwell Meadows home.

The club had sold their initial share of the 3,299 tickets by Thursday morning and such is the interest in the fixture, they feel the crowd could have been a lot higher if the ground was able to accommodate more spectators.

In contrast, opponents Halifax Town, who Quakers travel to on New Year’s Day, were unable to sell their allocation of 600.

“It’s a sell-out crowd for Boxing Day and now we’ve got to go out and win the game to give the fans the Christmas present they are looking for,” said Darlington manger Martin Gray.

Capacity at Heritage Park was 2,004, so today’s attendance will be the club’s highest for a home game since January 2012, when York City and a large travelling support swelled numbers to 6,413 at The Northern Echo Arena, a game also attended by supporters of other teams keen to lend their support to a club caught in the maelstrom of administration.

After the completion of a torrid season Quakers left the Arena and moved to Heritage Park, the maiden match being a 3-1 win over landlords Bishop Auckland.

A repeat of the scoreline today would be a welcome tonic given that recent results have not gone in Quakers’ favour.

They are enduring their worst run since 2012, seven matches in all competitions without a win.

“It’s time we started putting in some solid performances,” said Gray. “They haven’t been too bad of late, there’s just a little bit of frustration at individual errors that we have talked about over the past few weeks.

“We’ve got to stop that because Halifax have a centre-forward, Tom Denton, very similar to Mark Beck in stature. We’ve got to be conscious of what they are about.

“They probably haven’t hit the form this season that they are capable of, but we’ll still have to be on top of our game.”

Halifax are ninth, four points behind Darlington, and are in similar form, having not won in in the league since November 12.