Darlington Football Club is caught in a Catch 22 situation.The only apparent way forward is via the Sterling Consortium's bid to take over the club.

But with Sterling pursuing its debt by taking George Reynolds to a bankruptcy hearing, the former chairman is refusing to give the takeover deal the go-ahead.

We can fully understand Sterling's position. The consortium supplied a loan of nearly £4m and Mr Reynolds gave a personal guarantee to repay the money if the club defaulted.

Sterling's members are money-lenders. They want their money back. Full stop.

But despite our differences with Mr Reynolds, we also appreciate how hard it must be for him to accept that he stands to lose everything after investing so much in building a new stadium for the Quakers.

Having built a magnificent new home for Darlington Football Club, he now faces a court injunction to stop him even crossing the stadium's threshold and using the club's fax machine. He could even lose his own mansion in Weardale.

With his barrister insisting yesterday that Mr Reynolds will "fiercely contest" the bankruptcy case, and a new legal wrangle about to ensue, time is rapidly running out for the Quakers.

Administrator David Field put the club's position into stark context last night by declaring that it could be just seven days away from liquidation.

As it stands, everyone loses: Mr Reynolds, the creditors, Darlington Football Club and the town.

We can only hope that an unlikely agreement can be reached even at this late stage - so we don't have to face the prospect of 121 years of history going down the drain.

Darlington Football Club must not be remembered for opening a 25,000-seater stadium and going out of business within the same season.

That would surely be football's most spectacular own goal.