On part two of his look at the career of Darlington skipper Neil Maddison, Chris Lloyd discovers how cup fever gripped the midfielder in his Boro days before he eventually made an emotional move back home.

JUST round the corner from Neil Maddison's house is a football field. There's a children's playground in front of it - swings and slides - and a closed down engineering works behind it.

The football goalposts stay up all week so the local dogs have something to cock their legs against, but at the weekend the pitch comes alive when the local league footballers from the nearby pub hang their nets from the goal-frame.

Following Neil's directions to his house in Middleton St George on the outskirts of Darlington, I remember that it was on that pitch that I scored the only headed goal of my long and undistinguished football career. In fact, I remember it vividly: just five minutes remaining in the prestigious Darlington Invitation Trophy semi-final against the Killinghall Arms. 0-0, corner on the side nearest Maddison's house; big jump, eyes shut, bang on the head.

I remember opening my eyes just in time to see the goalkeeper's gloved hand - white glove - stretched out, the helpless fingers nowhere near the goal-bound ball. To this day, I can still see the ball flick the pieces of blue and yellow insulation tape - tape sticking the net to the bar - as it flew unstoppably into the top left hand corner.

Maddison's memories are much better. They come from the 1998 Coca-Cola Cup final. At Wembley. Against Chelsea.

"Certain things stick in me head from that day," he says. "I'll always remember the nice suits and the Armani glasses we were given.

"On the journey, there didn't seem many fans and I was wondering if anyone was going to turn up. As we got closer, we saw the odd fan, and then I saw Wembley Way. It was a sea of red and white. There were thousands and thousands of Middlesbrough supporters - no Chelsea. I couldn't believe it. Words can't describe the feeling: there was a tingle down my spine."

The final is probably the highlight - so far - of 34-year-old Maddison's career. It is a career that began when he was spotted playing for Darlington Schoolboys on Abbey Road playing fields. On his 14th birthday he signed, along with Alan Shearer, for Southampton, and he made 169 appearances for them over 12 years, scoring 19 goals from midfield. In his last season - 1996-7 - manager Graeme Souness even converted him into a centre back and made him captain.

But Souness left in a hurry, replaced by Dave Jones, and Bryan Robson at newly-relegated Middlesbrough came in with an £250,000 offer.

Says Maddison: "Middlesbrough had players like Paul Merson, Emerson, Juninho, Nigel Pearson and I knew I had to take it with both hands. I knew Robson had bought me as a stopgap because he had injuries and suspensions, but I had to make him realise I was more than a stopgap, that I could hold down a place, and I did that."

He made 56 appearances in his three seasons, the most memorable being the cup final.

"It's everyone's dream to play at Wembley, and it was certainly mine. The only time I'd been there was to watch Darlington in the 1996 play-offs against Plymouth," he says.

Two years later, Maddison himself was running out onto the Wembley grass to play against Chelsea.

"Coming out of the tunnel, the atmosphere was electric and the fireworks went off and the flags were waving," he says. "There were 80,000 there: one side red, the other side blue. Some people might fold under that pressure, but it pumped my adrenaline up. I was shouting 'come on lads, we want to win this'."

Maddison remembers his moments vividly. An early left-foot shot just over the bar. Then a free kick soon after Paul Gascoigne had come on as sub.

"Gazza floated it in," he recalls. "I spun off the defender and round the back, and just headed it past the far post. I remember Nigel Pearson just missed it with his head, and you think it could have been oh! so different."

Because in extra time Chelsea scored twice and, for the third time in two years, Middlesbrough left Wembley empty-handed.

"I was devastated," he says, "but, in a way, parts of me weren't too disappointed. I was just so pleased to get the feeling of being at Wembley in a big match. The day and the occasion overtakes the disappointment of losing, and no one will take it away from me that I played at Wembley.

"My loser's medal has pride of place in me mam's house in the cabinet."

On Boro's return to the Premiership, with new signings like Christian Ziege and Paul Ince dominating midfield, Maddison needed a permanent move away. Aberdeen offered him "flipping decent money" to stretch his career from the south coast to the most northerly footballing tip.

"The only other club was Darlington," he says. "I could have earned a hell of a lot more money elsewhere, but I was 31, and this was my chance to join my club."

Maddison had grown up in the Eastbourne area of Darlington and had first gone to Feethams when he was about five with his dad.

"I've seen some great games down there," he says fondly. "The two that stick in my mind are Middlesbrough in the Cup (1984), we beat them 2-1, and I was in the Tin Shed that day. The whole ground was surrounded by Middlesbrough supporters, they overtook Feethams and there was a bit of trouble. I was only a young lad and it was a bit scary at the time.

"The other one was the fund raising game in 1982. Lawrie McMenemy brought Southampton up, Kevin Keegan and all, and David Speedie scored a hat-trick for us. I used to watch him at Feethams and thought he was a great player. Funnily enough, in my Southampton days he signed and so we were teammates."

Maddison equates his move to Darlington with his old friend Shearer's to Newcastle. "He'd always said one day he would play for them. It doesn't matter who you are: my ambition was always to play for Darlington because I'm a Darlington supporter; his was to play for Newcastle."

Yet Maddison and Darlington wasn't a marriage made in heaven.

"My first season was tough," he winces at the memory. "Oooph, was it tough. I got abuse off the fans. When you come from a top club, they expect a lot off you. I look back now, and I think they were right because I didn't play well.

"I had to change the style of my game and find out what the Third Division was all about. The fans want to see you tackle and win balls in the air, to show a bit of passion whereas the Premiership does allow you more time. It took me a while to get used to it."

At the end of that first season, a former Southampton teammate, the Northern Ireland international Colin Clarke, tried to entice Maddison to join The Dallas Burn in the United States.

"A fantastic opportunity: a two-year contract, double me money, lovely weather," he says, looking out as the rain falls on Middleton St George. "But, nah, I didn't want to do it. I thought 'if I walk away from Darlington now people are going to say what a failure, what a waste of time'. I wouldn't have been able to step foot in the town again.

"So I told Tommy Taylor I wanted to stay. Over that summer, I ploughed some miles, got myself fit. Now, I'm so glad I didn't go to Dallas because I do think I've turned the fans around."

He believes he's turned the estranged chairman George Reynolds around, too. "I think he wanted me out as well," he says. "I had my arguments with him, some right ding-dongs, some real good fights, but we understand each other now - it's taken us two-and-a-half seasons."

Maddison believes he has at least another season left in his legs. "I want to stay with this club in some capacity, coaching or even on the commercial side," he says. "I feel I belong here. I'm not going to say it's my club but it is a club I have loved all my life, and to be captain of my home town club is a fantastic honour."

He even believes that the club can get out of its financial hole. "When I read in the paper that it was £20m in debt, I thought 'that's it, we are under'," he says. "But the crowd for the celebrity game and then again against Rochdale changed my mind completely.

"I've also seen the lads go three or four weeks without getting paid, and that's gone on for three or four months.

"It's been tough, especially for the youngsters on £200-a-week with mortgages and families to feed. But each and every one of them has been fantastic, no one's had a moan."

Last week at Huddersfield, the captain scored an extraordinary steepling goal that secured three vital points for the Quaker's bid for safety.

"I see the keeper off his line and decided to lob him," says Maddison, trying to keep a straight face. "Nah, I was trying to put it back in and I sliced it and the conditions were bloody awful: it was pouring down and there were galeforce winds. I saw Barry Conlon turning away to celebrate and a second later I realised I'd scored, but it was still a fantastic feeling."

Today the second-bottom Quakers travel down to Bristol Rovers. "We know what we've got to do and I fancy our chances," he says, confidently. "We can go anywhere in the league and get something, and we'll be going down and going for the win."

If Maddison can help the Quakers avoid the Conference this season, it will be an achievement worth storing in full technicolour glory in the memory banks.