IT'S a big day for Darlington Football Club. The visitors to the Reynolds Arena are high-flying Hull City. They're near the top of the table, having spent money on players, and they will bring a couple of thousand supporters.

The worry for the home supporters is that they will be out-numbered.

Many in Darlington, and the surrounding district, have stayed away from the club because they didn't like the old regime. But that regime is now over. New brooms are on the horizon waiting to sweep clean.

Never has the club needed support more. Never has the team, which is teetering on the brink of relegation, needed enthusiastic and vocal backing more.

So we urge all who are interested in the survival of the Quakers to go to the match.

Your club needs you.

Let there be light

REMEMBER the ridicule that was heaped on the Angel of the North when it was first proposed? But since being built, the Angel has taken on a life of its own. It has come to symbolise the North-East and no one - even those who were spitting hatred at it a few years ago - would dare suggest removing it.

In Darlington, the idea of the Brick Train was once maligned. Nowadays, the most frequent comment is not "why was it built?" but "why wasn't it built in a more prominent position"?

Sense of home is partly created by the ornaments on your mantlepiece and the ornaments in your local landscape.

We therefore give a cautious welcome to Durham's proposed tower of light and look forward to seeing more detailed plans.