Two ex-Darlington goalkeepers, David Stockdale and Andy Collett, have combined to help their former club in its hour of need.

Collett has obtained match-worn gloves and an England shirt from the Fulham keeper who this week autographed the items before sending them to the North-East.

Collett last night presented them to the Darlington Supporters Club who will auction them on eBay next week.

Stockdale is England's third-choice keeper and currently Fulham's first-choice while this is not the first time he has help raise funds for the club he left in 2008.

He recently used Twitter to auction Fulham shirts and on Tuesday he attended Quakers' match at Hayes & Yeading, standing among the visiting fans.

Speaking to BBC Tees, he said: "It's not good for the lads, they've got mortgages to pay, nobody wants to go through what they're going through. For the players, imagine not being able to pay you mortgage, it's work at the end of the day, it's not easy sometimes.

"There's a lot of lads like me and Dan Burn, I'd not be in football if it wasn't for Andy Collett and Darlington, they gave me my wages at the time.

"It's easy for me to can come down and watch the game, it's no big deal, anyone can do that, but the fans have travelled half the length of the country.

"It's a bad thing that so much money is flying around the top clubs."

Knowing that Stockdale still cares about Quakers, Collect asked for memorabilia that he could pass on to the supporters club who are busy raising funds to keep Quakers alive.

Collett, now goalkeeping coach at Hartlepool, was a member of the backroom staff when Stockdale was first-choice at The Northern Echo Arena and the Fulham stopper credits his former coach as having played a major role in his development.

Collett added: "He is showing a lot of interest in what's going on at Darlington and he's sent up an England shirt and match-worn gloves, both signed, which is a great gesture.

"From my point of view, I had a lot of good times at Darlington, I played for the club for a long time and retired there through injury, so have just tried to do what I can for the club because nobody wants to see it go out of business.

"We do a lot of coaching in the town with kids who are Darlington fans that would be devastated if the club died."

As well as being goalkeeping coach at Pools, Collett also runs his own coaching school, Premier Player, which runs classes across the region.

Stockdale has provided Collett with Fulham autographs to help mark the beginning of a new academy in Darlington.

Collett added: "We're expanding in Darlington and opening at Longfield School on Monday so David has also sent up 25 signed team cards that we'll give out. The first 25 kids that sign up on Monday will get them.

"We've got ex-professionals doing the coaching. I'll be doing the goalkeeping coaching and Neil Maddison is coaching the outfield players."

Ex-Darlington defenders Steve Foster and Alan White are also coaches with Premier Player while Paul Arnison is expected to begin working for Collett's academy when it launches in Hartlepool soon.

* The listing for Stockdale's signed match-worn gloves and shirt will start on Tuesday evening on eBay.

* premierplayerfootballacademy.co.uk