THERE will be some who will feel sorry for George Reynolds this morning. But not many.

Too many people, over too many years, have lived to regret their experiences with the former chairman of Darlington Football Club, who yesterday confessed to being a tax cheat.

Too many have faced his personal brand of intimidation. Too many have been left out of pocket. And too many have seen him ride roughshod over the rules.

Some will sympathise with him because he has lost so much: his fortune, football club, mansion, Spanish villa, flash cars, and yacht.

But more will take the view that he threw it all away through his arrogance, huge ego, obstinacy, contempt for authority, and plain crookedness.

For all our difficulties with Mr Reynolds - and there have been many - we actually believe that he started his association with Darlington FC with the best of intentions. To him, saving the club and giving the town something to be proud of was a way of being loved and gaining credibility.

But for all his self-proclaimed business brilliance, he alienated the local community with his caveman approach to public relations and a naivety which produced a folly of a stadium together with an on-going financial nightmare.

If past experience is anything to go by, George Reynolds will consider his predicament to be the fault of everyone else as he prepares to hear his fate today at the hands of Judge Guy Whitburn, who has warned him he may go to prison.

The truth is that he only has himself to blame.