We Must Survive

Quite why or how Reynolds was even given permission to build that stadium is unbelievable. The equally greedy Darlington Borough Council, eyes seeing £ signs withReynold’s promise of massive revenues, allowed the now convicted Reynolds to proceed. The moment the stadium was built, it began to suck the breath out of the club.

Subsequent chairmen: Davies, Houghton, Singh, have given CPR to the club, but in an emergency, as medical staff will testify, CPR is not enough. The situation needs to be restructured, radically redeveloped, or the club’s life support machine will have to be turned off.

Raj Singh can’t be blamed for the current predicament. He took over the club, knowing and saying that he wasn’t going to make money.  And now, Raj stands on the brink of losing the land and the stadium and being left with a club that is haemorrhaging money. What is the point in continuing? Why should Raj carry on if he’s getting nothing out of the club?

Raj’s efforts to revitalise the club have been admirable. He was the only serious party during the club’s administration of 2009, without Singh, the club would have died. Now, almost exactly 2 years after the previous calamity, the man who placed the club into administration back in 2009 isonce more playing another central role as the club lurches into this crisis. George Houghton, the former chairman who during his time at the helm, pumped money into the club at one end, saw it draining out the other, decided he’d had enough and pulled the plug, has allegedly reneged on a promise to pay off a debt to 2 businessmen, which he himself took out in an attempt to preserve the club in 2008.

That has led to the company owning the land and the stadium, set up by Singh and Houghton as part of the deal to save the club in 2009, being placed into receivership, provoking this latest crisis. George Houghton already tops Darlo fans’ most hated list. Now, after this latest episode, he’d be safer wandering around the Afghan hinterlands wearing an American flag, than to show his face around Darlington.

But real victims of this, once more, are not the businessmen at the centre of this crisis, but the fans. Time and time again, as soon as things are looking up for the club, the rug is pulled from under our feet, leaving the club on its backside. Manager Mark Cooper has performed magnificently well, revolutionising an awful side, deservedly condemned to relegation last season, into a side with realistic play-off ambitions, promotion back to the Football League is still a possibility.

That is unless the latest off-field drama to engulf the club doesn’t shatter those aspirations. A solution desperatelyneeds to be found. Darlington is, in all honesty, a pretty grim town. Take away the football club, and it is unbearably awful, with barely any redeeming features. In short, the town needs its football club.

I urge all supporters, be you season ticket holders, exiled or part time followers, or ex-Feethams attendees, alienated by the move the White Elephant Arena, to come out in vociferous support. Attend the next home games, against Kidderminster on the 22nd or Salisbury on the 26th, as a sign of your passion, your love of the club. Let’s show Raj or any potential owner that we do love Darlington Football Club. A club with a passionate, loyal fan base appears a whole lot more attractive.

And to all those who hold the club’s future in their hands, take time to consider the impact the football club has, the lives it touches, the stories and excitement it generates. I beg of you, find a solution, there’s always a way.

Darlington needs a football club and right now, the football club needs a miracle.

By Chris Sykes