Hi all!

I'm a Hebburn Town (and Darlo) fan and, if possible, I would like to ask for some help/advice on behalf of Hebburn Town who are facing a very bleak future not long after both Horden CW and Norton & Stockton Ancients bit the dust.

Our club is currently losing a lot of money - costs are increasing but crowds especially at Step 5 level and below are diminishing. We don't blame the fact that there are bigger clubs than us in the area (Newcastle United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough) and yes maybe it is 'market forces'. However, our club dates back well over 100 years and has a thriving youth section which gives the greats of tomorrow a platform from which to launch their careers.

Hebburn Town fans know all too well about Darlington's recent history, and many (if not all) of us supported the rise of Darlington 1883 from the ashes of Darlington FC after the misdemeanours of a certain Mr. Reynolds. We would appreciate any help and advice from Darlington 1883 - if you have any businessmen on your forum (or if you know of any former Club Directors of Darlington 1883 who are looking for a new challenge) then please we would love to speak with you/them at the earliest opportunity.

Our plight has recently been highlighted by Steve Whitney on his Pitchero website at the link:

http://nonleague.pitchero.com/news/who- ... urn-53323/

Many Thanks and I hope that (perhaps) we can see Darlington 1883 visit Hebburn Town very soon - maybe in a fund-raising match or a pre-season game if we manage to survive past Summer 2017 (fingers and all crossed!)

Regards

Gavin

Hope you's find the support you need, we know all too well how hard it is when suffering financially.

Just on another note, don't call us Darlington 1883 please. Just Darlington FC. Cheers

Good luck.

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18/19 Season:
LDWDLDLWDLLWWWDDDDLLLLWDWWLWDLLDWD

*includes all cup games*

Hi Gavin, it's Darlington. Just Darlington.

You see, Darlington 1883 never rose from the ashes of Darlington, because Darlington never ceased to exist as a club. Darlington 1883 is a figment of the FA's imagination.

The problem we had was that the FA brought out shiny new rules which did not previously apply to other clubs who had exited administration without a CVA before (like Leeds, Luton and Bournemouth). Yes they were hit with large points penalties, but in our case the FA applied their shiny new rules and instead of giving us a large points deduction or an extra relegation, they pretended that we were a new club that should "start again" at step 5. They also decreed that we had to use a different playing name just to make sure that everyone knew we were a "new" club, unlike other clubs in the same situation previously.

Whether any of this was anything to do with Radged Strings holding on to the golden football share, is anyone's guess. A lot of people do seem to think it is down to the share not being transferred from Radged to the new owners, but I'm not so sure. The new rules were already in the FA rulebook which stated that all clubs who exited administration without a CVA would now be classed as a new club - so I think that the golden share issue is probably irrelevant.

The name Darlington 1883, although voted for by us, was only intended to be used if we went bust and had to start again, like for example Halifax did.

As a continuation of the same club Darlington but under the pretend name of Darlington 1883, and in the pretend guise of a new club - we paid in full the player debts of Darlington, and in the end, thanks to transfer clauses owned by Darlington, we gained extra money, half of which went to pay a little something towards the other creditors of Darlington.

Obviously if we had risen from the ashes of a now defunct club, we would have been under no obligation to pay a penny of it's playing or non playing debts, and neither would we have been able to receive transfer clauses from that now defunct club. It would just be impossible for the latter.

Good luck to Hebburn, your club did seem to be more supportive of us than many others in that Northern League season.

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“Everybody knows where that club is going now, so I’m out of the way. They can carry on, it’s their club, they can keep it." - Raj Singh, 2017

What sort of crowds do Hebburn attract Gavin?

Hi again, thanks for the replies Andy, Quakerz and Darlo Pete!

To answer your question, Pete, we struggle to get above 50-60 people and this revenue is simply not enough in order to keep going. Like most clubs at our level, we rely on volunteers and they don't have pockets as deep as Mr. Abramovich. Also, our committee is getting on in years and we need younger blood to come in at some point in the future and also some new ideas and impetus.

On a more positive note, we have managed to raise close to £1500 through the hard work of our fans :

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding ... =JrN8ad8aW

and we have a number of fundraising ideas and incentives:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1spk9hg

Our manager, Scott Oliver, also recently spoke with the team at Football Matters and this interview will air at 21:30 on Made In Tyne & Wear:

https://www.madeintyneandwear.tv/progra ... l-matters/

If we can raise enough money to see the season out, that will be a major relief, and hopefully we can rebuild during the summer and have enough money (and maybe new fans!) in order to go forward into the 2017-18 season.

Many thanks and good luck to Darlington FC!

Very well put -

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Mr Singh said this " I'm not expecting to get back any of the money I've already put in, I'm prepared to write it off for the future of the club. I'm not hanging in to make any kind of financial gain in the short or long term - if someone was prepared to come in and take the club off my hands, I'd be more than willing to discuss it"

Tamworth matchday programme 26 Nov 2011

From our time in the Northern League, I went to quite a few away games and a lot of the sides have a pretty mature fan base. Now I know we have quite a few old codgers like me, but we also attract plenty of youngsters as well. How you attract the younger fan is a problem that many clubs face up and down the country. Having a thriving youth football set up is a good start. Perhaps you need to think around ways of getting those youngsters more involved in the first team set up.

That's a very good call there, Pete, and we do like to help progress youth players towards the first team.

Like all clubs though, we are always going to be up against it when it comes to marketing ourselves - we've got three big clubs nearby and they will always be a bigger 'draw' for fans. However, we are looking to keep our admission prices low and there has been a lot of positivity towards helping the club during these troubling times.

We'd definitely welcome investment and ideas from people, and the door is always open at Hebburn Town for people who can help take us forward

Good to see your plight being shown on the local news on BBC Breakfast news this morning. There's no such thing as bad publicity or so they say.

That is very true, Pete, and things are starting to look a bit more rosy for us.

We had a very good crowd for today's game against Team Northumbria, and there is talk that we might be hosting a fund-raising match soon for young Bradley Lowery. IF it happens then hopefully it will be okay to post details of it here?

Feeling a lot more confident and optimistic.

Really pleased things are looking up for you. Yes of course you can post details on here Gavin of any fundraising match.

Brief update:

Things are beginning to look a lot better for us, a lot of local interest in the club from fans (old and new) and touch wood the worst is over.

Nothing as yet on the charity match, though I did hear it is going to be discussed soon at a club meeting. Would be great to raise money for Bradley (and also his friend Hope who is also a young child suffering from Neurblastoma).

One other bit of good news which might be of interest to Darlington FC fans is that Horden CW are set to reform in the Durham Alliance League next season. Hopefully Norton & Stockton Ancients will also be back in the near future as well!

Many thanks to everybody (especially those from Darlington FC) who have supported Hebburn Town in their darkest hour, and the club is always open to a pre-season game against Darlington FC!

Cheers!

That's great news Gavin, really hope things continue too improve for Hebburn Town. If you went down to the Durham Alliance is there promotion from that league to presumably the Wearside League?

Fingers crossed for you Gavin. Hope it all works out well

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Our Football Clubs are for life, not just for business!

Noticed they had a bumper crowd a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully the locals will rally round their club, like fans did for us.

Quite a change in fortunes for Hebburn Town, as they top the Northern League.