DARLINGTON will begin next season without the “1883” suffix after the Football Association approved their request to drop the digits.

Quakers lodged a request earlier this season to remove the controversial section of their name, which has been disliked among supporters since the club took it on under duress following administration in 2012.

As part of the club’s request to the FA, they supplied the results of a poll conducted by the Darlington Supporters Group this season that saw fans vote 98 per cent in favour of removing “1883”.

Darlington director Jonathan Jowett dealt with the issue, liaising with the FA in recent months, and yesterday he received notification that the request had approved at a meeting of the FA Council.

He said: “This is fantastic news for our fans and formally re-establishes our historic connection.

“I would like to thank the FA for accepting our application and the arguments we made in favour of reverting to our traditional playing name of Darlington FC.”

Darlington took on the digits at the beginning of the 2012-13 season, when the club started afresh after being relegated to the Ebac Northern League, the FA ordering a name change to create a distinction from the previous era.

In the same season they started playing matches at Bishop Auckland’s Heritage Park after leaving The Northern Echo Arena, and the news about dropping “1883” comes in the same season that Quakers have moved back to the town at Blackwell Meadows.

Their next home match is against Tamworth on Saturday, when Darlington will attempt to their play-off hopes back on track.

They are now sixth after Saturday’s 4-1 loss at AFC Fylde, two points off fifth, and this evening Brackley can move to two points behind them when they play their game in hand at home to third-placed FC Halifax Town.