“THERE was surely never an occasion like it in Feethams’ history,” says The Northern Echo’s match report of a 0-0 draw with Torquay on the last day of the season 55 years ago.
On the final whistle, the immense crowd of 16,469 erupted with joy: the point against third-placed Torquay was enough to gain second-placed Darlington promotion to the Third Division.
No one was worried that a victory would have won the Fourth Division title for the Quakers. There was such joy at winning promotion that the players threw their shirts into the crowd – something the perennially penny-pinching club could not afford.
The full page containing that dramatic report is in today’s centre spread. The main photo shows the Darlington manager, Lol Morgan, and this really was his team and his success.
After an undistinguished playing career – 300 appearances for Rotherham, no goals – he’d become Darlo’s player-manager in June 1964. He assembled a team of free transfer signings, although he did spend £3,000 on striker Bobby Cummings from Newcastle.
His team contained Quakers legends like Ron Greener, John Peverell and Alan Sproates, and as it proved successful, it was regularly watched by crowds of 7,000 who paid four shillings admission. With the season nearing its end, chairman Harry Robinson offered Morgan a £10-a-week rise if promotion was achieved. The manager walked out, thinking the offer an insult.
A week later, he was back, and finished the job on the last day of the season.
A month later, he was gone, poached by Norwich City.
Without him, the next season, the team finished third from bottom and were relegated back to the Fourth Division.
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