A COUPLE of unusual events led me to being at Darlington instead of watching Dagenham, as had been the original plan.

I unfortunately broke my foot but as a Saturday afternoon without football is not a prospect that fills me with joy, my eightyear- old son Emerson suggested we go to Darlington.

We made our way to the stadium to find a most unusual scene – a long queue for tickets.

Among the fans were inevitably plenty from Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle, but there were also some from further afield, such as Arsenal, Liverpool and, of course, Emerson and me representing Dagenham.

Once in the ground I was amazed at the atmosphere.

I began to feel a little sorry for Fleetwood. They were second in the league and going for promotion but had arrived to all the drama surrounding Darlo.

The local and national media were out in full force and it felt like the game was far more important than just a run-of-themill fifth tier league encounter.

For Darlo, of course, it was.

Despite selling many of their best players, Darlington actually played really well. Craig Liddell, must have been very proud. The fact that they announced Liddell and the whole Darlington team as man of the match at the end was the perfect tribute.

I could not help but wonder why it had taken things to get this bad for the locals to finally show how much they care?

I actually felt a little guilty that I had not done more myself.

Yes, my allegiances lie elsewhere, but Darlo are my local team now and I should have come here more often.

“Can we come to more Darlo home games when we aren’t going to Arsenal or Dagenham?” asked Emerson on the way home.

“Yes,” I replied, “of course we can.”

I just hope there will be many more games for us to go to in the future.

Ricky Butler, Darlington.