WHEN the conversation turns to football clubs which have had their ups and downs, Darlington FC, which was one of the founding members of the Northern League in 1889, must be a major talking point.

Ten years ago, in the 2012-13 season, after a series of misfortunes, relegations and the deduction of points, the former Football League club were back in the Northern League and called Darlington 1883. It was all very sad because in the past Darlington had represented County Durham and the North East with distinction and had produced some great post war cup results.

In the 1957-58 season as a Third Division North club, they mowed down First Division Chelsea 4-1 at Feethams in an FA Cup fourth round replay.

In the 1960-61 season as a Fourth Division club, they beat First Division West Ham 3-2 in the second round of the Football League Cup. In the next round, a record crowd of 21,000-plus saw First Division Bolton beat them 2-1 in round three.

For the 2012-13 season, Darlington 1883 decided to groundshare with Bishop Auckland at the well equipped Heritage Park in Tindale Crescent. Ironically, their first game of the season was against Bishop Auckland and the game, which was all ticket, attracted a crowd of 2,004. They saw Bishop take the lead with an Andy Johnson goal just before half time.

The mood changed after the interval when Darlington defender Arjun Purewal headed in. Shaun Reay hit a second, before David Dowson hit a third goal after dribbling past two men so the Quakers won 3-1 win.

Halfway through the season, at the beginning of 2013, Darlington were top of the Northern League, nine points ahead of Spennymoor, having played four games more. Bad weather intervened and five games were postponed before the Quakers met Marske United away from home on February 2, where they won 5-0 with strikes by David Dowson (2), Terry Galbraith (penalty), and sub Stevie Johnson (2).

Four days later they struggled to beat Hebburn Town 1-0 at Heritage Park, the only goal coming early in the game from Dowson off an Adam Nicholls pass.

Darlington then went to Hebburn for the return game the following Saturday and comfortably won 7-1. Hebburn did not help themselves with two men sent off in the first 20 minutes.

Darlo took the lead with a Terry Galbraith penalty but Tony Stephenson equalised. Hebburn were down to ten men when Craig Gott scored with a deflected free kick (below).

The Northern Echo: Hebburn v Darlington: Penalty scored by Terence Galbraith.

Hebburn held on with nine men until the hour when Amar Purewal scored from a Galbraith pass, then Chris Emms made it 4-1 from long range. Dowson scored the fifth from the edge of the box, and then set up Purewal for the sixth before Gott scored another from a free kick.

That set up a clash of the top two at the Brewery Field, Spennymoor Town on Friday, February 15, and what a night it turned out to be in front of a sell out crowd of 2,670.

Spenny took the lead early through a Gavin Cogdon penalty, but Galbraith equalised with a left foot shot into the bottom corner of the net. In the second half, Dowson fired the Quakers in front before Stephen Thompson made a 60 yard run down the right hand side and set up Adam Nicholls to score the third.

Darlington manager Martin Gray said: “It’s a great night for the football club and a proud night to come here and beat the league champions. They had not been beaten all season, and they take some beating.

“Believe me, they are a top team.

“We didn’t have a team six months ago and now we’re 18 points clear of the champions.”

But Spennymoor still had seven games in hand because of their commitments in the FA Vase and two other cup competitions…

The Northern Echo: Spennymoor Town Fc v Bemerton Heath Harlequins, pictured Spennymoors Kallum Griffiths.

Spennymoor's Kallum Griffiths digging in 10 years ago

To be continued…