THEY have a chief executive who seems to have had enough, supporters who feel downbeat while the team has not won any of their last eight matches and is mired in the bottom half of the table. This is Darlington’s nightmare before Christmas.

Their hopes of a play-off push are evaporating just as the pantomime at the Hippodrome is beginning, but nobody of a Quaker persuasion is laughing.

Comments by disillusioned chief executive David Johnston caused concern the night before Darlington lost 3-2 at Chorley on Saturday.

It was the fourth defeat in a row, but elements of the performance were encouraging and debutant striker Andrew Nelson looked a prospect, scoring twice and immediately looking the part after joining on loan from Sunderland.

Making the most of the loan players will be the future, said Johnston, in an enlightening Q&A with fans on the club’s website in which he offered a grim outlook.

He explained budget cuts – that have seen senior players Dave Syers and Reece Styche leave - have been necessary due to lower than expected attendances, and did not rule out further reducing expenditure if necessary.

The club are getting their house in order, and the Darlington FC Supporters Group chairman Chris Stockdale, who oversees Quakers’ finances, said: “While the current financial position is not where we planned to be at the start of the season, the trade creditors position is significantly improved from where it was 12 months ago.

“The DFC board will take any actions needed to ensure that we have a sustainable footballing budget whilst at the same time giving the manager as much support as possible to build and retain a competitive squad.”

Johnston personally guarantees the club’s five-figure overdraft and The Northern Echo understands that he made a directors loan to the club in 2017 to ensure HMRC were paid on time.

He has spent months examining the potential of moving Darlington to a council-backed sporting village at the Arena, admitted: “I want to walk away but I feel I have a moral and ethical responsibility to stay as the club could fold. It is certainly not worth the hassle, stress and abuse for no reward.”

With Quakers 17th in the table, some fans questioned Wright’s performance as manager, with the response being: “The management team knows the board’s expectations.”

While the comment hardly offered an assurance that the board believes Wright will turn fortunes around, the hierarchy have allowed the manager to make three loan signings lately, with two more to come.

With the season almost at the halfway point, the team have certainly fallen short of expectations, but Wright remains optimistic, and understandably so.

It would hardly send the right message were the manager forecasting doom and gloom.

“I have managed in difficult situations before,” he said. “We finished 12th last year. We still think a top ten finish is more than doable and we are going to have a surge at them play-offs.

“I do think if we can get some results over the Christmas period we can put ourselves back in the mix. The lads are in a good place, they are not looking like they are done in, they have got smiles on their faces.

“They can see that we’re getting stronger, the injured lads are coming back and the group is in a good place. That first win could be a real catalyst for us.”

There is cause for hope as on Saturday, away to a team that is now top of the table, Darlington played well in patches, particularly in the first half despite playing into a strong wind on a bitterly cold and wet day in Lancashire.

They were 1-0 up at half-time, Nelson showing a cool head to finish when one-on-one with onrushing Chorley goalkeeper Matt Urwin having been played in by Harvey Saunders.

Nelson was one of two debutants, the other being Alex Wollerton, on loan from Leeds, who was steady away at right wingback with Stephen Thompson in the centre of midfield instead of the injured Tom Elliott.

But Chorley were stronger in the second half and exposed Darlington’s weak defending, soon turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.

The equaliser came after a corner, Marcus Carver smashing the ball home, and then two goals in a minute demolished demoralised Darlington.

Andy Teague finished off a pull back from Adam Blakeman after 67 minutes, and within seconds Alex Newby pounced on a Jonny Maddison error for a 3-1 lead.

With five minutes to go Nelson scored again, this time past substitute goalkeeper Danny Eccles, with a similar goal to his first.

Nelson’s performance up front was the clear highlight, and because the defence needs strengthening too week Wright will bring in a central defender as well as midfielder, both from Barnsley.

He added: “There’s little bits I can nit-pick, but there were positives I can draw on.

“Against a tough side away from home we put ourselves in a good position and then shot ourselves in the foot a bit with soft goals.

“You could put goals down to those conditions to a certain extent, but we can take the positives. We’ve got a lot of football to play over the next few weeks, and hopefully we’ll start picking up some more points and move up the table.”