DARLINGTON Football club has been handed "one last roll of the dice" after coming within hours of going out of business.

The Northern Echo can reveal that Darlington Football Club was due to be wound up this weekend until former chairman George Houghton gave the club an extra £150,000 which will see it through until the end of the season.

Watch an exclusive interview with George Houghton.

However, Mr Houghton has warned this is the last time he will bale the club out and a new buyer or consortium needs to be found if the Quakers are to survive beyond May.

The club has been in administration for over a month and this week administrators appealed to Mr Houghton for help after it became clear there was not enough cash for the club to survive after this weekend.

In an exclusive interview with The Northern Echo, Mr Houghton has revealed that although he is not prepared to invest any more money individually, he would work with other investors and run the club through a consortium.

He has also reiterated that if the club is to be a viable prospect it needs to be able to buy land adjoining the stadium from Darlington Borough Council and thus be able to build a hotel and business park at Neasham Road.

Although the club is in administration, Mr Houghton still owns The Northern Echo Darlington Arena, which is run as a separate business.

Mr Houghton has said that any buyer for the club would be able to rent the arena for free until it is in a more secure financial situation.

Mr Houghton said he agreed to invest the extra money after meeting with the administrators Brackenbury Clark on Wednesday.

He said: "I gave it great thought, but I've always said I'd support the club right until the end.

"It was the end of the road, but I don't see that, I've spent nearly two-and-a-half years of my time trying to get the club to a championship situation and I still believe with the right people it can got there."

Mr Houghton said he believes there are between four and six people who are interested in buying the club.

The extra money, he said, will buy enough time for them to perform the necessary due diligence before they buy the Quakers.

However, Mr Houghton has not ruled out remaining at the club as one of the shareholders.

He said: "There's one or two people who would still like a consortium.

"I'm still prepared to put more money in per year.

"There's always going to be a loss of between £1.5m and £2m a year, but I'm still prepared to put in £300,000 and be one of the shareholders.

"I don't want it to go down.

"The administrators have got about six clients, some clients want to take on just the football club and rent the stadium, some want to buy the whole, lock stock and barrel.

"I'm prepared to do whatever deal with them as long as it's important for the club.

"I'd still like to be a part of it, I've spent nearly three years of my life here."

However, Mr Houghton stressed he was no longer prepared to be the sole investor in the club.

He said: "This will last the club until the end of the season, maybe the fifth or sixth of May.

"I think that's the deadline date for Darlington for anybody coming to buy the side.

"Unfortunately, there,s D-Days for everything and the dates for Darlington is around the May time - you need the money to keep it going through the quiet time until August.

"This is the last roll of the dice."