HAVING joined a club that has become something of a springboard for goalkeepers making their way in the game, Jonny Maddison is hoping to become the next Darlington No. 1 to rise up the ranks.

After two years with Yeovil Town the Chester-le-Street 23-year-old has this summer returned to the region, tearing up the contract he had at Huish Park to become Quakers’ first choice between the sticks.

Standing at 6ft 4in, Maddison does not lack presence and first impressions have been favourable, making good saves in each of the team’s pre-season games including a penalty stop in Quakers’ match in Eindoven, a trip arranged to assist in team bonding.

It was a canny move by manager Tommy Wright given that he has gradually formed a new squad since becoming manager last October with a dozen players leaving since the end of last season.

Wright brought in eight players during last season - though two were on loan and another two have since left – with Maddison one of seven summer signings, and shortly after his arrival he received a text from a former Leicester City team-mate.

“Kasper Schmeichel texted me just after I joined,” revealed Maddison, who will make his full Darlington debut on Saturday at home to Curzon Ashton.

“He’d seen that I’d moved, he was wishing me all the best and saying that he had made his debut for Darlington, so that was a nice of him to get in touch.”

Schmeichel was still in Russia as part of Denmark’s World Cup squad at the time of Maddison’s move back to North-East, joining a club which enjoyed plenty of national media coverage whenever Jordan Pickford’s first steps in the game were mentioned this summer.

Like Schmeichel when on loan from Manchester City in 2006, Pickford played his first games in senior games for Darlington while on loan from Sunderland in 2012, while other goalkeeping alumni include David Stockdale, now with Birmingham City, and those who watched Aynsley Pears last season on loan to Quakers expect big things from the Middlesbrough youngster.

Maddison admits his is a bold move, dropping two divisions and turning his back on full-time football for the first time in his career.

And he also reveals that he had the opportunity to go on trial elsewhere in the EFL, but now wants to prove himself as a club’s first-choice, so that meant coming home.

“I’m delighted to be back I the North-East. It’d been six years,” he said. “I was at Crawley for 18 months after Sunderland, then Leicester for two years, and then Yeovil.

“I was told that I wasn’t guaranteed the No. 1 shirt at Yeovil. I had a year left on my contract. I sat down and thought about it, I spent all my time on my sunbed on holiday wondering what to do.

“Last year I played a dozen games in League 2, and in some big games, big occasions for myself like Notts County away. It’s a gamble, but I back my own ability, I have confidence in myself to do what I need to do.

“I can see from the outside it looks like a bold move and a gamble, but I like to take risks and I class myself as quite ambitious.

“The way I look at it, I just want to play football. Some people, especially goalkeepers, are happy to be a number two, but I need to be playing and I feel I can benefit by being here, around my family, home comforts.

“If I can get a 50-game season this year, it will make me better and I do want to make that jump back into the Football League.

“Obviously I want to take this club forward as well. When I met Tommy I got an instant good vibe from him and the fans.

“The games we’ve had in pre-season have been brilliant and it’s an exciting time.”

Much has changed at Darlington in the past 12 months, as evidenced by comparing the annual team photographs taken last year and this - only six personnel remain from the 2017-18 picture.

But the aim remains the same: promotion.

“I didn’t know too much about what happened in the time before I came, but the lads have been saying there’s been a lot of personnel coming in,” added Maddison. “I know Jonny Burn because I grew up with at Sunderland, all the way through from under-10s to under-18s, it’s good to see him with his hometown team.

“There’s a few other boys I’ve come across in my time at other clubs. We’ve got a very talented squad, and now we really need to focus on having a big season.

“Maybe the squad won’t gel straightaway. Like when we played Motherwell for the first friendly, we opted for three at the back and obviously that didn’t work. We’ve gone back to a four and it’s going to take a bit of tinkering and we’ll get there in the end.

“There’s positives to take and we’re moving in the right direction.”