DARLINGTON chairman George Reynolds yesterday paid his "biggest ever" transfer fee to bring York striker Barry Conlon to Feethams.

Quakers have been tracking the promising 22-year-old Irishman since the end of last season, when he turned down an offer from Second Division Colchester, where he had been playing on loan since November.

Reynolds won't disclose the size of the fee involved, but it is certainly much more than the £20,000 for Mark Ford from Torquay last season, although it will probably be less than the £100,000 York paid Southend in July, 1999.

"Barry wasn't settled last season," said Reynolds, who was delighted to have added another piece to the Feethams jigsaw.

"He lived in York with his girlfriend, and was travelling down to Colchester for matches and training. That obviously wasn't helping him. Before that, there had been a change of manager at York.

"Now he knows he has a future here at Darlington. He feels very happy about the move and he's delighted with the set-up.

"We expect him to do well for us and that he'll score around 20 goals in the new season."

With Conlon's arrival and Neil Maddison's signing, Reynolds believes a promotion-challenging side is taking shape.

"I feel we've got a good team together, and there could be more players to come," he said.

He won't divulge who Quakers are chasing but Reynolds told a fans' forum last week that he thought Quakers needed three top-class players.

Conlon started his career as a junior at QPR, where he won seven under-18 international caps for the Republic of Ireland. He then went to Manchester City and played one first-team game, before going on loan to Plymouth in February, 1998.

After he was freed by City, he scored seven goals in 28 starts for Southend in 1998-99 before York boss Alan Little paid £100,000 for him two years ago.

In the meantime, he also picked up four under-21 caps, scoring four goals, to add to his seven at under-18 level.

After scoring 11 goals at Bootham Crescent in his first season, he failed to find the net in his first ten games last season, so new York boss Terry Dolan loaned him out to Colchester, where he scored eight times in 23 Second Division starts to keep the Essex side away from the relegation zone, taking his Football League career tally to 28 goals in 98 games.

Conlon, who has signed a three-year contract, said: "It's brilliant for me because I didn't really want to move house from York. The chairman has shown me the new stadium and the club is certainly going places."

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