Darlo Uncovered

Apparently Craig Stoddart has a big interview going live on the northern echo website at 5.

A tweet from Nick Laughlin: Quick heads up for Darlington fans - @CStoddartEcho has a big interview coming up on line at 5pm and over two pages in tomorrow's paper.
The sports desk is finishing it off right now.
You've an hour to sit down and have your tea before you digest this one ....

Darlo_CR wrote:Apparently Craig Stoddart has a big interview going live on the northern echo website at 5.

A tweet from Nick Laughlin: Quick heads up for Darlington fans - @CStoddartEcho has a big interview coming up on line at 5pm and over two pages in tomorrow's paper.
The sports desk is finishing it off right now.
You've an hour to sit down and have your tea before you digest this one ....

Very cryptic... Wonder what it is.

Darlo_CR wrote: You've an hour to sit down and have your tea before you digest this one ....

That line worries me

Although it is Loughlin so he could just be on the wind up

Sporting hub has gone quiet lately, could we be about to get an update on it

Hope he is on the wind up. But the last sentence doesn't make me feel too good.

Surely not again?

Someone on Twitter said it's an interview with Party Marty.

Maybe we'll finally get some recognition off him if it is in fact an interview with party marty

I expect it’s Craig Morley outlining his commercial plans in order to try and get more business on board

divas wrote:I expect it’s Craig Morley outlining his commercial plans in order to try and get more business on board

What a redicious way too announce an interview if that's true "You've an hour to sit down and have your tea before you digest this one ...."

It is indeed MG. 'I need to eat humble pie' he says.

I've read the alleged 'Big Interview' and its a good Echo article well done for getting the piece.

Nice to see some reflection and even a little admission of 'not always getting things right' at last. Balance that with though absolutely no surprises, revelations or insights that add to what is already known.

Being party to bringing back in the previous owner who had pulled the plug previously showed poor judgement and incited most of the fans who have put their own money in already. Money talke, but throwing in £10k to the pot as a 'gesture of goodwill' does not buy anyones place in football heaven.... particularly given the level of personal funding from us all.

We know our direction and hard as this will be, we need to retain fan control and build as we go now. The addition of a Commercial Director should be a good move, building on some excellent governance by the CEO David Johnson.

Lets be careful out there...

Martin Gray says he needs to eat a bit of humble pie, well Martin you need to eat all the pie a blooming big one at that, you reap what you sew. Just desert I think.

Shame he didn't take more of this tone when he first left - a whole load of aggro would have been avoided, and we wouldn't have the rather sad situation of all the highs of Grays reign somewhat overshadowed by the fall out of the ending of his reign.

Read that article and don’t buy a word of it.

After having had a few of his little posse on here recently attempting to sling mud at the manager which didn’t work, it appears that the next plan of action is to try the ‘I’m not such a bad guy really’ routine.

If the rumour mill is to be believed he thinks he’ll get his way back in at some point, and that the ‘golden boy’ (Tommy) is on borrowed time.

If he had shown the supporters who paid for the promotions and the volunteers who kept the club alive respect when he left then there would be no animosity, but he basically mocked us when he left.

Anyways, he’s the past, I’m more concerned about the present and the future, which he has no part in. Onwards.

Vodka_Vic wrote:It is indeed MG. 'I need to eat humble pie' he says.

Not quite - 'I've made mistakes and need to eat a bit of humble pie'

Still he does go 'a bit' of the way towards an apology for wrecking our season. He won't be on my Christmas card list just yet as I think the club should have had some compo.

What he doesn't mention is that the real bucket rattling damaging quote didn't happen just after he left, it was in March this year in the York v Chorley programme notes. He also said that Darlington have to get away from a 'Fan-owned mentality'.

Gow9900 wrote:Read that article and don’t buy a word of it.

After having had a few of his little posse on here recently attempting to sling mud at the manager which didn’t work, it appears that the next plan of action is to try the ‘I’m not such a bad guy really’ routine.

If the rumour mill is to be believed he thinks he’ll get his way back in at some point, and that the ‘golden boy’ (Tommy) is on borrowed time.

If he had shown the supporters who paid for the promotions and the volunteers who kept the club alive respect when he left then there would be no animosity, but he basically mocked us when he left.

Anyways, he’s the past, I’m more concerned about the present and the future, which he has no part in. Onwards.

He's finally acknowledged the fans involvement and admitted Raj was the wrong person to go to, whatever his motives for this interview are only he will no, we move on however, he did wonders to get us to this level but he's no longer the right man for our football club, Tommy for all has question marks over him is the right sort of manager we need, someone wanting to develop the youth players and make us some saleable assets, Gray would quite simply want to steam roller his way up to the next level or 2 with no plan on how to stay there

I don't want to pick M.G's ramblings apart too much but this bit caught my eye - it's where he goes on about winning at Darlo with his York side.

“What really hurt when I came back to Darlington with York in January was that my dad, who has followed me all around the country and been to every game, couldn’t come to that game. It should’ve been a proud day for my parents but I couldn’t let them come to that game.

“I didn’t feel great about winning that day and I didn’t speak to the media before the game or after it. I just wanted to get the day over and done with."

This simply is not correct. After the match Gray looked ecstatic - punching the air towards the away fans and stuff like that - so much so that Scott Thornberry uttered down over the P.A. "yeah well done Martin" in a sarcastic tone.

Even if Gray had of wanted to "stick it" to his former employers, he should shown a lot more respect for us, the fans. Thinking about it, we the fans are his former employer.

theoriginalfatcat wrote:I don't want to pick M.G's ramblings apart too much but this bit caught my eye - it's where he goes on about winning at Darlo with his York side.

“What really hurt when I came back to Darlington with York in January was that my dad, who has followed me all around the country and been to every game, couldn’t come to that game. It should’ve been a proud day for my parents but I couldn’t let them come to that game.

“I didn’t feel great about winning that day and I didn’t speak to the media before the game or after it. I just wanted to get the day over and done with."

This simply is not correct. After the match Gray looked ecstatic - punching the air towards the away fans and stuff like that - so much so that Scott Thornberry uttered down over the P.A. "yeah well done Martin" in a sarcastic tone.

Even if Gray had of wanted to "stick it" to his former employers, he should shown a lot more respect for us, the fans. Thinking about it, we the fans are his former employer.

Yep, I remember seeing him and he wasn’t all that downcast


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Is this just a case of Gray, back pretty much on the scrap heap at Shildon, thinking that if he can rebuild some sort of a reputation with Darlington fans, we might just look his way if Wright were to move on?

He knows some would put his name in the hat but at present he'd be too unpopular. Maybe if he can tip that balance a bit...

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Why would he want to come back?

We'd hit a ceiling and didn't have enough money for him.

We still do not have enough money for him (and all of his entourage). Does he now not need money?

Gow9900 wrote:Read that article and don’t buy a word of it.

After having had a few of his little posse on here recently attempting to sling mud at the manager which didn’t work, it appears that the next plan of action is to try the ‘I’m not such a bad guy really’ routine.

If the rumour mill is to be believed he thinks he’ll get his way back in at some point, and that the ‘golden boy’ (Tommy) is on borrowed time.

If he had shown the supporters who paid for the promotions and the volunteers who kept the club alive respect when he left then there would be no animosity, but he basically mocked us when he left.

Anyways, he’s the past, I’m more concerned about the present and the future, which he has no part in. Onwards.

Hold on just a minute. If you think this has anything to do with people who have questioned TW's abilities and credentials then you are sadly mistaken. I still have my doubts about TW long term but to a slight extent he has steadied the results of late which is a start. However, I think it has been fair to critique the first third of the season and there is no getting away from the fact it has been disappointing and dull. League results have been below par, no FA cup run (again) and through a combination of the latter and lower gates we have had to sell an asset in Styche - it's easy to understand why some of this falls at TW's feet.

Saying that, the manner in which MG left the club and state of which he left it means that his reputation is tarnished to a very large degree and will take a fair while to forgive - a year is not long enough. For this reason I hope TW does go on to prove a success but I'm just not convinced that he has it to cut it here. Hopefully he proves me wrong!

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote:Why would he want to come back?

We'd hit a ceiling and didn't have enough money for him.

We still do not have enough money for him (and all of his entourage). Does he now not need money?

I don't think he does want to come back.

He's now back working in this area, bumping into people who he hasn't seen for a while and I reckon he's just trying to calm the waters a bit. The trouble is for me, there's stuff in this interview that I simply don't agree with - and a lot of this bad feeling could have been avoided if he'd just acted with a bit more class in and around the time of his leaving.
And he needs to be more consistent, he does tend to change his views quite rapidly does M.G! Re the "Golden Share" supporters trust vote at York he completely flipped his views pre vote to post vote

Clearly his business is struggling.

Spyman wrote:Is this just a case of Gray, back pretty much on the scrap heap at Shildon, thinking that if he can rebuild some sort of a reputation with Darlington fans, we might just look his way if Wright were to move on?

He knows some would put his name in the hat but at present he'd be too unpopular. Maybe if he can tip that balance a bit...

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This is my interpretation too

Indeed. Almost all Football Academies need to be connected to a football club in order to provide a succession route, probably BTec funding also. MGFA had lost this Avenue and as I understand it was "touting" around. Shildon have provided a "Host" ...Cast your mind back to 2012 when initially our new home was to be non other. Question of watch the space

Surprised that Mike Amos wasn't doing the interview as he certainly knows his pies

tezza wrote:Shildon have provided a "Host" ...Cast your mind back to 2012 when initially our new home was to be non other. Question of watch the space

Can you explain this please? The 2012 bit .......

theoriginalfatcat wrote:

tezza wrote:Shildon have provided a "Host" ...Cast your mind back to 2012 when initially our new home was to be non other. Question of watch the space

Can you explain this please? The 2012 bit .......

Maybe when we were scheduled to ground-share with Shildon but then quickly decided not to and went to Bishop instead.

Didn't Shildon keep the fee/rent we paid too?