IT was the autumn night that Darlington outshone the Illuminations, that they really did like to be beside the seaside, that they travelled to first division Blackpool in the third round of the League Cup and beat them 2-1.

Blackpool included England internationals Jimmy Armfield, Alan Ball, Ray Charnley and Tony Waiters.

Fourth division Quakers fielded journeymen footballers like Eric Johnstone, Norman Cardew – one of only seven appearances for the club – and Bill Hopper, from Bishop Auckland. It’s Bill who rings with memories of that Golden Milestone.

It was October 13, 1965 – “a truly great display”, wrote Bob James in the following day’s Northern Echo, “another of those fabulous triumphs that stud a none-too-glorious history.”

Jimmy Green put Blackpool ahead after 36 minutes, Hopper equalising soon afterwards when Johnstone’s shot rebounded from the bar. Fifteen minutes into the second half, Scottish winger George McGeachie scored what proved to be the winner.

“I can still see those goals,” says Bill, now 76 and living on the Wirral.

“George’s got a bit lost in the clouds.

Mine was much better.”

Our man at the match might not wholly have agreed. “McGeachie slammed in a shot from halfway out on the wing,” wrote James. “Although Waiters got both hands to it, he couldn’t prevent it going in.”

Stalwart wing-half Joe Jacques, said Bob, had snuffed out Alan Ball – “the man with that £100,000 tag.”

Johnstone, who lasted just a season, had “time and again led Armfield a merry dance”.

Bill Hopper remembers it vividly.

“I don’t think anyone gave us a chance. I’ve been to Blackpool a canny few times, but never enjoyed it half as much as that.”

BILL Hopper played for his native Bishops, moved up the road to Crook Town and scored all five on his debut, against Stanley United, they of the Little House on the Prairie.

Thereafter, he joined West Auckland, again scoring all five on his debut and again against Stanley United. “I’m sure they were longing to see the back of me,” says Bill, and they did when he signed professionally for Halifax Town.

He’d worked as a locomotive fireman at West Auckland sheds – dear old 51F – under the all-seeing eye of Alderman Bob Middlewood, Bishop Auckland’s Mr Big.

Bill would volunteer for the 4am shift on Saturdays, cycle to the ground – “still black” – and put in another shift in the Northern League.

“Bob Middlewood was very good about it, but the foreman was a Shildon supporter and as awkward as hell,” he said.

At The Shay, he hit nine goals in 35 Football League appearances between 1961-63, at Workington 14 in 46 and at Darlington just once – that Blackpool bullet – in six appearances.

“My cartilages were falling out,” he says. “I decided I was going to have to work for a living.”

He played part-time for Stockton and for South Shields, worked at GEC in Aycliffe and in Scotland and now lives next door to his daughter and grandchildren. They might as well have a passageway between the two houses, he supposes.

He last watched Darlington in January 2003, tracked down by the Backtrack column in time for the Farewell to Feethams reunion.

“I’ve a tin knee but I’m still playing my golf and still not bad for 76.

There are plenty of memories, but nothing like that Wednesday night in Blackpool.”

OTHER North-East football followers were rather less happy that October evening.

Jimmy McNab’s goal failed to save Sunderland from a risibly received 2- 1 League Cup defeat at home to Aston Villa – “If the need for a striker isn’t obvious after this miserable defeat, it never will be,” wrote Frank Johnson on our back page – while Middlesbrough “frittered” their way to a goalless draw with Millwall.

Beneath the headline “Greed will replace need”, Durham City had sent an “agreed memorandum” to the Football Association arguing against proposals to end amateur – many said shamateur – status.

“The consequences of the move would definitely debilitate the artery of goodwill that exists towards people who are prepared to make a contribution towards their own enjoyment,” it said, rather grandly.

In West Auckland, there were moves to form a whippet club; in Darlington, while the men were at Blackpool, the darts playing women of the Falchion pub in Blackwellgate were meeting – “enthusiastically and vociferously” – to demand a ladies’ league. “No male stronghold is safe,” wrote Brian Whittle, the Echo reporter, though in the 5s and 3s league the defences happily remain.

Blackpool finished 13th in the top division. Darlington were promoted in second place, behind Doncaster Rovers, but – all too familiarly – plunged back again the next season.

Bill Hopper’s last match for West Auckland was almost as memorable as Blackpool was to prove – a replayed FA Cup first round tie with Barnsley. By happy coincidence, we’d just borrowed the programme and cuttings from West general manager Stuart Alderson.

The first game was at West Auckland, November 4, 1961. Shildon, indelibly, were at Oldham Athletic the same day.

At half-time, West Auckland were three down and seemingly on the verge of a thrashing. Stan Skelton’s 62nd minute goal may have seemed little more than a consolation. Then Bill Bloomfield hit home a penalty and with two minutes remaining, most of the 4,000 crowd went wild when Bill Hopper fired the equaliser.

“We had a three goal lead but we were defending desperately at the end,” admitted Barnsley manager Johnny Steele in the Oakwell programme for the replay.

The game kicked off at 2pm, expected to be Barnsley’s last midweek afternoon match. The floodlights, explained the programme, were on their way.

Though the south Yorkshire side won 2-0, the Barnsley Telegraph report – written by someone called Benny Hill – was under no illusions.

“Amateurs give Barnsley the fright of their lives.”