GARY Bennett yesterday took the honourable way out of the Darlington manager's office in characteristic fashion.

Nice-guy Bennett, appointed when David Hodgson walked out on August 3, 2000, decided to quit when it became obvious the players weren't giving him what he required to turn Darlington into a promotion-winning side.

The season is at a crossroads, just as it was a year ago.

The parallel is the same. Good start, then bad results, with Bennett trying to find ways to stop the rot.

But bear in mind that PR Director Luke Raine admitted at a fans' forum in Newton Aycliffe this year that "massive mistakes" were made at the start of last season, and although he wasn't referring to Bennett's appointment, he did mention the club's policies regarding transfers and wages, which proved to make life difficult for the new man.

This summer saw a different quality of player recruited with Barry Conlon, Neil Maddison, and Danny Mellanby brought in.

There were some promising signs, such as the convincing wins against Leyton Orient and Exeter - but when the extra quality was needed, for example at Luton, it was missing.

Bennett, who took the reserve team to Pontins League promotion and the Durham Challenge Cup, was appointed manager when Hodgson walked out less than a fortnight before the 2000-01 season started.

But since the middle of October last year he has discovered just how difficult management can be, especially when he was looking for quality players to strengthen a squad which was made up of mainly kids and free transfers.

Since the play-off final chairman George Reynolds has strongly defended his manager, pointing out that several players had left the club, and the chairman publicly supported him several times, especially after the last day of the season defeat by Blackpool.

Life in the Feethams hot-seat has never been easy since Brian Little's days, and last season Bennett struggled to find a winning combination.

Twelve different players from a total of 43 were tried up front. Instead Glenn Naylor, who is regarded more as a midfielder, was top scorer with 15 goals.

This season, with expectations of promotion high to accompany the opening of the new stadium, question marks have steadily grown over the strikeforce after a run of five League games without a win.

Bennett, unfortunately, was never a fans' favourite.

At Chesterfield in December, the visiting fans chanted "We only want one shot" in a dismal showing.

Bennett thought about resigning after that game, but the chairman persuaded him not to, but successive batterings at Port Vale and relegated Barnet highlighted the weaknesses and, sometimes, the alarming lack of spirit in the team.

Fans thought that if Bennett had been more tactically aware and shown his passion more publicly, then they would have rallied round him. But displaying passion wasn't Bennett's style - he had plenty of it, but didn't show it

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