TO some it was always a matter of when rather than if, and to many it should have come a lot sooner.

The news that Gary Bennett had vacated the Darlington hot-seat will have been greeted with a sigh of relief by most of the clubs' fans, but that's a little harsh on a man who only ever wanted to bring success to the club, and repay chairman George Reynolds for the faith he had in the former Sunderland defender.

Bennett displayed a laid back image to supporters on Feethams matchdays, but what he could not show was how deeply he cared about getting his team to play the way he instructed.

After the debacle of last season, this campaign began promisingly for Darlington with a battling display against First Division Sheffield United in the League Cup and eye-catching victories over Hartlepool United and Bristol Rovers.

These preceded a highly impressive 3-0 win against Leyton Orient which came four days before a 4-0 trouncing of Exeter City.

In that time arguably Darlington's best player has been Danny Mellanby - a Bennett signing.

Darlington are two points outside the play-off zone and this season have produced performances of a better standard than were witnessed last term.

But for Darlington supporters, blighted by last year's poor showing, that just wasn't enough. The season's good start raised expectation levels so when results began to go against Bennett, fans were quick to have they say on the man many criticised heavily last season.

The Darlington hierarchy have written-off season 2000/01 as one big mistake. In pre-season Bennett admitted that his first season as a manager had seen him make his own share of errors, and that the year had been a learning curve for him and he intended to put the experience to good use.

One thing he will have learned was that replacing established players with inadequate youngsters, expected to fulfil the roles of the likes of Marco Gabbiadini, Neal Heaney and Steve Tutill, is not the way to run a football club, and certainly not the key to building a promotion-winning side.

Of course, with no experience of managing a football club at the relatively young age of 38, he was handed the task of rebuilding a decimated and unhappy squad with little in the way of transfer funds. It was always going to be an extremely difficult - if not impossible - task.

Although chairman George Reynolds says changes had to be made, all the off the field disruption did not make Bennett's transition any easier.

Despite all the upheaval, Bennett bravely withstood all the criticism -'Bennett out' chants were heard regularly at Feethams fixtures during the latter half of last season - and guided Darlington through a turbulent year.

Featuring few highlights - the win at at Nottingham Forest in the League Cup was an exception - the year was undoubtedly a failure after the previous season's jaunt to Wembley in the play-offs.

But 13 months down the line since Bennett replaced David Hodgson, the names on the team sheet make better reading than those which caused alarm bells to ring last season.

Bennett and his assistant Mick Tait, with the aid of Reynolds' cheque book, have brought in some decent players and changed results for the better. All in all, believe it or not, Darlington Football Club are in a healthier position than they were at this stage a 12 months ago.

But, with Darlington's season at a vital stage Bennett obviously feels he's done as much as he can to take the club forward and has decided to quit now before the run of three defeats turns into four, and then five.

What the fans never saw was the emotion in post-match press interviews - if they had then many more would have taken to the animated and determined man.

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