Steel City Weekend

The away fixture at Alfreton proved to be a great excuse for the first DAFTS weekender of the season after a few of us decided to spend a couple of days in Sheffield, currently the top place in the country for pubs with top quality cask ale. 

On Friday afternoon we all made our way to the Steel City and gathered at the Hillsborough Hotel - Tony and Ray had arrived early - even finding time for a lunchtime beer with DAFTS local boy Brian in his lunch hour - and they were on their way to the nearby New Barrack Tavern as Steve and I arrived.

After checking in and dropping off our stuff into our rooms, we popped into the bar and started on the beers. One of the key features of the Hillsborough Hotel is that it has it's own brewery - Crown Brewery - and they had several of their beers on when we arrived - their regular session ale HPA as well as stronger brews, Brooklyn Heights and January Sail.


Steve, Ray and Tony on the tram

 Eventually Tony and Ray returned before Brian joined us after he'd finished work - we had a few more before heading off on the tram down to Shalesmoor. 

Our destination was the Bottom Wellie - formerly Cask & Cutler, but now called the Wellington and known locally as the Bottom Wellie (the Hillsborough Hotel was formerly called the Wellington and is the Upper Wellie - though nobody calls it that - confused?).

More good beers here - predominantly from Little Ale Cart, a small brewery in the back of the pub, which are always seem to be to my taste.  We had a few pints before hunger pangs got the better of us and, leaving Brian to go home for some beauty sleep, we take the tram back to Hillsborough for a cracking curry at the Bangla Cottage. We make it back to hotel at midnight and caught last orders for a final pint.

A relaxed start to the matchday - a full english breakast in the bar with Ray complaining he was suffering from the curry - far too much detail fella - and then the tram down to the station.  Ray, Steve and I headed off to Alfreton leaving Tony to wait for Brian and John B.

The weather was not good - steady rain and high winds - and it didn't make the slow climb to the centre of Alfreton any more pleasant but eventually we arrived at the Lord Alfred where Trev was waiting to buy us a beer.

The pub is very Wetherspoons-like - a lot of people eating food and having tea/coffee - but it didn't have that depressing JDW vibe.  The first pint - Blue Monkey's 99 Red Baboons - was on the turn, Steve changed his but I was partway through and had almost got a taste for it so struggled on.

The other beers were in finer fettle - obvious choices such as Doom Bar and Fullers London Pride were ignored in favour of brews from micros such as Blue Monkey (BG Sips) and Abbeydale.

Tony and John B, then Brian and finally Colin turned up.  Colin was accompanied by another local, Chris Freer, who is really a Forest fan but spent several seasons following us and now spends his time in the non-league - see his excellent blog here.

By now the weather had brightened up and I wandered off early down to the ground and got myself some excellent chips and gravy.  The rest of the menu looked well tasty too.

There was a fairly decent turn-out of Darlo fans, most stood on one half of the open terrace whilst Martin, Chris, Pete and a few others were seated in a small section of a stand. 

Ryan Bowman puts Darlo in the lead


The Quakers started the game quite brightly, passing the wall around well, but Paul Arnison and Kris Taylor were nonetheless quite busy in defence - even John McReady was spending more time in his own half helping out that we'd have liked.

But it was Alfreton who went closest after Jordna Pickford did well to save when an Alfreton player was put through on goal.

The home keeper also had to be busy, making some crucial interventions, saving a good effort from MB-W and then tipping over an excellent shot from Taylor.

Darlington were reduced to shooting as the home side had a central defence of giants and any ball that was hoisted up to Ryan Bowman was headed back with interest.  Too much to expect of him on his own.

But it was Bowman who managed to put Darlo after about half an hour when the Alfreton keeper parried a Rundle shot into his path, leaving him the easy task of tapping the ball into the back of the net.

Any hopes that this would be the catalyst to the Quakers exerting more control over the game were soon dashed as Pickford was faced with another one-on-one but this time he was beaten and it was all level.
Alfreton then looked as if they would go into the lead but Darlo held out until the half-time whistle.

Today's ref was the piggy-faced Richard Clark although I shouldn't be so cruel as after taking charge of our recent home game with Fleetwood, he donated his match-fee on the cause.  Well done, Sir!

It seemed as if he was still looking kindly on us when he sent off home player Alfreton’s Anton Brown. He had already been booked for one trip and was duly off for an early bath when he did much the same to McReady.


Pickford saves

The heavens started to darken and so we were in the midst of a hail storm, eventually becoming wetter, and most of the away fans tried to find cover in the small away section of the stand.  Eventually a covered portion of the open end was opened for the Darlo fans.  I, of course, had no such luxury!

The conditions soon passed, but not before Bridge-Wilkinson tested Lowson with a dipping and swerving effort and at the other end Pickford almost caught out by Arnold at a free-kick, but he pushed the ball over.

And then just before the hour Alfreton took the lead for the first time in the game, and it came after a poor Pickford kick.

Alfreton swiftly attacked and Jarman fired in a shot from the corner of the penalty area and Clayton was on hand to tap home to make it 2-1.

But within 60 seconds Quakers were handed a boost when Alfreton had a man sent off. Brown finally saw red, long after he should have done, and again it was for a trip on Ramshaw.

But ten minutes later, despite the numerical advantage, the game was as good as over for Darlington when Arnold added a second to make it 3-1.

From then on it was mainly a matter of damage limitation as we continued to get very little joy upfront - as the game wore on the football got worse for us.  I was never a fan but I had hoped that Clark Keltie might offer some support at this level but he looked woeful though no doubt he is lacking in match practice.

Despite the performance the Darlo fans warmly applauded the players who looked quite sheepish as they in turn applauded the fans. No doubt they would get a slightly frostier time from Lidds once they were back in the dressing room.

We made our way from the ground to the station but had to wait about half an hour for our connection back to Sheffield.  Time for more inquests among the Darlo fans waiting for trains but I did my best to abstain.

On arriving back in Sheffield we decided against wandering round the pubs in the city centre and simply decided to return to Shalesmoor.

First stop was the Kelham Island Tavern - twice winner of CAMRA PotY - a good range of beer but I can't say I'm keen on the place personally.  We have just one pint and move onto the nearby Fat Cat - matchday residence for the London Millers, if only for the rest of this season.

We found places to sit in the former smoking room and the conversation revolves around all sorts, including my OCD approach to hanging out washing.  You had to be there I suppose.

After leaving the Fat Cat, we headed off for food - we walked past the recently re-opened Shakespeare on Gibraltar Street and to the 7 Spices Balti. Quite a cavernous place and not too busy - the food was very good and the service quite prompt - a good way to finish off the weekend.


DAFTS HQ for the weekend

Field Mill or Amsterdam? No contest...

Although Mansfield isn't the most glamorous place to visit, it was always a great excuse to pop into the VAT and Fiddle near Nottingham station.

But not this season as Liz and I decided to miss our respective games and make a long weekend of it in Amsterdam.  Well, actually I did as I wanted to see one of the bands I like, A Pale Horse Named Death -  You've probably seen the t-shirts - but Liz was more than happy with the idea.

View from the apartment

We'd got in touch with our chums Ken and Vlad and rented one of their apartments on the edge of the Joordaan district.

The place came with all mod cons and a lovely view over the back gardens.  Plenty of birdwatching potential here too - jays, parakeets and woodpeckers in addition to the normal garden bird life.

The weather though was rather on the chilly side and within a few hours it had started to snow heavily - as predicted by hysterical newsreaders back home. No such fuss here thankfully.

We've not seen full-blown snow there before but it really made the place look good.  It had obviously been cold for a while as the canals were frozen hard and the canal boats sounded like ice-breakers as they made their first trips of the day.

Before going to the gig we called in at De Zotte - one of our regular haunts though not for the beer (although they sport a large selection of Belgian beers) but the food - I love their Belgian blue-steak whereas Liz can't get enough of their Belgian Trappist savoury cheesecake.

APHND were playing at the nearby Melgweg - Milky Way - a long established cultural venue where we'd seen a few gigs.  I'd arranged to meet Big John Duncan, former guitarist in the Blood Uncles and Goodbye Mr Mackenzie (and once a guitar tech for Nirvana) in the restaurant there. 

BJD works at the Melkweg these days but unfortunately he'd pulled something in his back and he'd called ahead with his apologies. I think Liz was secretly pleased as she knew we'd just end up talking about Be Bop Deluxe. Still the restaurant was very pleasant and sociable and they had Ij Natte in bottles too.

The gig itself was excellent - a decent crowd of just over 200 - not bad for what is a new band albeit one with strong ties to Type O Negative.  I'd seen them the previous week in London but the sound here was much better.

Frozen canals

Given the cold weather we restricted our leisure activities to the odd wander round the shops until it was time to visit the bars.

This mainly meant the Arendnests as it is our favourite - and is why our apartment was round the corner - but we also found time to visit their sister bar, the Beer Temple.

Food wise we were also spoilt for choice - we were on the Herenstraat with a host of great restaurants that we'd tried in the past. 

This time we went to Seasons where we love their Dutch pea soup and as for the fillet steak with a rosti cooked in bacon fat - beautiful.  With three courses for €28, it is great value.

Our one extravagance was a visit to Cafe Graves - a classic restaurant in the French style we've visited before - they offer a set menu where you don't get to choose your dishes but you let them know the kind of thing you don't like and they'll then select some of their dishes for you.  It works too.

You can also go for what they call the arrangment where you can have a different wine with each course - complete a full explanation of the wine itself - something I've scoffed at in the past as it does seem a bit poncey but again it works and really enhances the experience.

With four courses and the arrangement, the cost is about €65 each - worth every euro.

As ever we had a great time even if it was just for a few days.  If you've never been to Amsterdam before then what on earth are you waiting for?

This post has not been sponsored by the Dutch Tourist Board...

Punishing Myself (Again)

The home match against York promised to be a good game and to continue last weekend's theme - a big crowd, great atmosphere and plenty of positive coverage for Darlo and their fight for survival.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be there - I was supposed to be going but there was a late change of plans after Punishment of Luxury announced a London gig - and so Howard went in my stead.

I still managed a pre-match lunchtime session in the pub as I joined the London Millers in the Black Lion, Plaistow.  Like DAFTS, they use this pub before their games at Dagenham & Redbridge and it has a half decent choice of beer, the best being Stiff Upper Lip, a steady drinking pale ale from By The Horns, a fairly new brewery from North London.

As the Millers headed off for their game, I go home and spend an hour with Jeff Stelling before I wander off into town for the gig.  When I left home Darlo were 2-0 up so it was annoying to learn that we only got a draw.

I head off to the Angel in Islington and tonight's - the Electrowerkz - and pick up my ticket.  Bassist Jimi Giro is outside having a fag and I catch up on his exploits playing in a band in Dubai over the summer.

After pre-gig beers in the Harlequin, a lovely little pub but with a very average pint of Taylor's Landlord, I wander off for some superb fish and chips at Crown Fish and Chip bar on Chapel Market - really excellent quality and not that dear by London standards. Recommended!

Then time for the gig - when I arrive support band Dutch Order are playing goth-rock of a type that does nowt for me. I pop into the dressing room for a quick word with the band before they come out for their set.

Electrowerkz is a new venue for me, set in an old print works, and the sound is not the best I've heard (although I'm stood behind the speakers in my usual position at the front).  The lights are poor, far too much red light which is not good for photography so I stick to using my Flip and capture some live action for a change.

The good news from the band is that they've finished the recording of the new tracks for their forthcoming CD, 5 - so called as it has five tracks. They had hoped to have it ready to sell tonight but no such luck.

They played four of the new numbers and here is one of them. Yvonne:

The Flip doesn't capture the sound very well but you get the idea.

The rest of the set was similar to their last outing as we can see from the set-list (which also had little old me on there as I'm looking after their Facebook page).

The evening was actually a double-bill with Spizz Energi.  Spizz is best know for Where's Captain Kirk back in 1979.  I have the original single somewhere and I do like most of his stuff but I didn't hang around as I quite fancy an early night.  Not very rock and roll, eh?

It's Not Woking For Us

Four our evening game against Hayes and Yeading, I decided to take the afternoon off and have a few relaxing beers before kick-off.

Normally this wouldn't be possible as Hayes has a distinct lack of decent pubs - as we found out last season - but since Hayes and Yeading sold their ground and their new one isn't ready, we're making the trip to their temporary groundshare home, the Kingfield Stadium, home of Woking FC.

I'd invited Geoff Luke to join Liz and I and we all met on the concourse at Waterloo.  Just behind was Old Hairy Hands himself, Richard Keys, presumably toddling off home after doing his radio slot in the nearby Talkshite studios.

Geoff and Liz with the LM flag

It is only a 25 minute journey to Woking - real suburbia but a pleasant run when you avoid the rush hour - and on arrival we headed off to the Railway Athletic club.  We're not members of course but since it's in the Good Beer Guide, all CAMRA members are allowed in.

Not surprisingly it was not very busy - they had a couple of cask beers on, local beers but I forgot to make a note of what they were.

Both beers were fine but not worth hanging around for so we made the short walk to the designated DAFTS pub, the Sovereigns.

There was a much more expansive range of beers here - Elgoods Black Dog, Wooden Hand Pirate's Gold, Brentwood Blond, Itchen Valley Treacle Stout and Adnam's Gunhill.

We bumped into our new chum from Braintree, Michael, who'd met up with another exiled Darlo fan ne found on his travels.  Martin called me - he wanted directions to the pub so I passed him onto the barmaid.  Within minutes he was with us.

Of the beers the Pirate's Gold and Blond were good easy drinkers but the Treacle Stout was surprisingly good - quite dry and not at all sweet as you'd expect from the name.

Other DAFTS turned up - Neil, Paul and Iain - and finally John W just as we'd decided to walk down to the ground - only about fifteen minutes away (less if you find the proper entrance!).

Martin and Stocky

A strange stadium - very non-league on three sides but behind one goal there is a huge stand - closed tonight of course - which completely dominated.

The squad was warming up as I got pitchside - I noticed David Stockdale had arrived and was busy catching up with Thommo.  Liz and Geoff had put the London Millers flag - a bit of lower league solidarity - before joining us so she too could have a chat with Stockers (who'd spent time at Rotherham on-loan).

Doug Embleton and wife Ange were down - as was Shawn Campbell with former Chelsea player Paul Canonville - so I had a quick chat to see how they were coping with all the media attention.

There was a healthy contingent of Darlo fans in evidence tonight - plus quite a few from other clubs who had seen the drama earlier in the week and wanted to come along and give their support.  The crowd of 550 was significantly above the home average for the season as a result.

Unfortunately any thoughts amongst the travelling fans about us pulling off a positive result were dealt a mighty blow after we ended up two-nil down after just ten minutes.

The Quakers didn't look very confident right from kick-off - later I learn that Graeme Lee was injured in the warm-up and I suspect that didn't help as Scott Harrison had to then play in central defence.

The first goal came from a penalty when Jordan Pickford clattered into one of the Hayes' forward and was adjudged to have fouled him.  Pickford was given no chance from the spot.

Pickford was again heavily involved with the second goal - his throw out was not the best and went to the opposition.  The Quakers defence then let Wishart run through the defence more or less unhindered and he shot home from close range.

A disastrous start and the last thing that any of us had expected.  We may not be in the best of form but after a solid, albeit fruitless, performance against Fleetwood, we had expected a close contest tonight.

Earlier in the season, the Darlo fans would have turned on the players but they continued to get behind the team and encourage them.  And the players did finally make some headway as they put their stamp on the game and put pressure on the home side but without really troubling their keeper.

And despite that very shaky start, Pickford recovered and managed to make a couple of very decent saves.

Ange, Doug and Neil

In the second half Darlo came out looking very strong and almost pulled a goal back after Kris Taylor was denied by a clearance on the goal line.

But it wasn't long before the home side extended their lead as Collins scored a solo effort from his own half to seemingly put the game beyond Darlo's reach. And the lead could have been a lot worse but for some woeful finishing.

As the game started to run down for the last quarter I was hailed by Spencer Austin, better known as the Gloryhunter, who'd spent a couple of months following Darlo a couple of seasons ago. It was nice to see him again - he told me he'd been spending time on safari in Africa and had also taken up birdwatching. There's hope for the cockney boy yet!

As time started to run out Darlo pulled a goal back when one of the youth team, Jamie Barton, shot (or crossed) from out wide on the wing and the ball looped over the keeper.  Did he mean it? 

The celebrations were muted on the pitch as the Quakers no doubt thought it was a case of too little, too late.

However another of the youth team, Danny Lambert, was having a very busy debut and he crossed to Ryan Bowman.  He shot but the keeper saved it only to see the ball hit defender Pele and trickle over the goal-line in slow motion.

Ultimately it was too little, too late but as the players got a tremendous ovation from the away fans, we did leave feeling that if only we'd not been so careless in the opening quarter of the game, we could have got something out of this game.

Back From The Dead - For Now...

So as we all know, there was a dramatic resurrection scene outside the Arena a few days ago - caught wonderfully by local and national media so that the whole of football could see some real drama for a change - as members of the DFC Rescue Group managed to stop administrator Harvey Madden from applying the coup de grâce.

The upshot was that I still had my early morning routine and at Da Vincis, my breakfast was consumed with added vigour - today promised to be an exciting one and I can't do these on an empty stomach.

Martin and I arrived at Bank Top on time and I headed straight to the Quaker - no pies today, we'll buy those at the ground so they get more of our money - and found that Trev had beaten me.

Pete Ashmore and David Conn 

A fairly decent range of beers today: Maxim Anderson Best Scotch & Swedish Blonde, Mayfields Copper Fox, Vale Hopocalypse, Houston Borrochan, Cairngorm Ghillie, Banks Fine Fettle, Mordue Geordie Pride and Just A Minute Darkest Moment.  The Vale and Cairngorm beers being the pick of the offerings for me though Geordie Pride is always solid.

A good DAFTS turnout - Tony, John W, Trev, Brian, Neil and Colin - and for once we stayed in the Quaker rather than wander up to Number Twenty-2 since we'd decided we should turn up earlier than we usually do so couldn't be arsed to move.

The pub was pretty busy too as it seems plenty of fans from other clubs and perhaps some lapsed fans had decided to come out and see us - but not without a few decent beers inside themselves first though. Very sensible.

We wander down to the market and caught a taxi to the ground, arriving just before 2pm, and it was difficult to believe that we had an hour to go before kick-off as the Arena was swarming with people and cars were queuing up to get into the car park.

I wandered round and saw many familiar faces - I was chatting to my old chum Pete Ashmore when I was accosted by David Conn, one of the premier football journalists when it comes to looking at the real issues facing the game.  David had covered Darlington quite a bit since the Reynold's era and after seeing the dramatic events a few days earlier, he'd decided to come and see things for himself. See his article here.

Pickford flattens Brodie

As the game was getting plenty of media attention I headed off to the press desk earlier than usual - my Uncle Ray was there helping out as he has done in recent weeks.  Whilst there Doug Embleton introduced me to his partner-in-crime Shawn Campbell - they were the ones who rolled up with the money last week to keep us alive in such dramatic fashion - we proceeded to compare curly fringes.

As I left reception I bumped into Echo editor, Pete Barron, who has also been heavily involved in the work of the Rescue Group - and who has seen that the Echo has been fully behind the plans to keep DFC alive.  He told me that due to the queues outside the ground, the kick-off would be delayed by fifteen minutes.  Not really a surprise.

Down at the tunnel things were also busy - Cockerton Brass Band were doing their bit by pumping out lots of football anthems  and there were quite a few camera crews including BBC's Mark Tulip who was getting footage for Inside Out.

What was most impressive though was the sheer number of fans that were already in the stadium and when it got round to kick off it was quite astonishing - it was great to see so many parts of the ground with fans in.

The players got a great welcome from the crowd but they were going to have their work cut out for them as opponents Fleetwood Town are vying for promotion.  Up front for them was Richard Brodie -he is one of my most disliked players, a nasty snide player who managed to get Aaron Brown sent off in the home match against Crawley last season.  He'd eschewed his shaven head and was now fully hirsute except for a most amusing bald patch.  I'm sure that is down to karma.

It always struck me as odd that Mark Cooper held him in such high regard and I'm so pleased that he failed to sign him at the start of this season - I can support most players but I'd draw the line at him.

It was a pretty even first-half - plenty of possession from Darlington but Fleetwood were more cutting up front. Young on-loan keeper Jordan Pickford acquitted himself well and made my day when he flattened Brodie as he clattered into him whilst collecting a high ball. It allowed me an excellent view of the bald patch.

However Fleetwood managed to take the lead before the break - a bit of sloppy defending led to Mangan shooting and hitting the post and the rebound was slotted home by Danny Rose.  Quite a blow as Darlo had looked good up until then.

Brodie needs hair restorer

In the second half, Fleetwood dominated and had quite a few opportunities to extend their lead.  However Pickford was in good form and there was some sold defending which kept us in with a chance.

Sub Harrision came on to bolster the forward line and both he and Adam Rundle were very busy around the box but ultimately failed to put the Fleetwood keeper under any great pressure and with the temperature dropping significantly - especially at pitch level - I was pleased to hear the final whistle.

We had lost against a much better team but today was not about a result - it was an affirmation that we're still alive and we wanted to be together to celebrate that fact.  Anyone with an ounce of sense knows there is a long-way to go before we find out whether Darlo will survive but we now have a chance.

The crowd that turned up today - with fans from many other clubs - showed that the wider football family wants clubs like Darlington to survive so hopefully there will be a way forward for us.

It was a pretty large crowd that wended it's way back along Neasham Road - my feet were frozen and I was pleased to get back to the relative warmth of Bank Top station - not that isn't something I thought I'd ever write!

Our train was a little late arriving but once we got settled we tucked into some food that Martin had got at the game.  By the time we'd got back to Kings Cross we were back on schedule and we headed for the Euston Tap.

For once we were joined for post-match beers by the London Millers - Liz and Jenny and then finally Tim. Plenty of great beers for me including some crackers from Redwlllow (Directionless and Chocolate Stout), Hardknott (Cool Fusion and Continuum), Thornbridge Brother Rabbit, Buxton Blonde and last but not least, One For the Road, the ETap collaboration beer brewed at Northcote to mark the impending departure of manager Tony.

A good day out despite the result - we still have a club to support but there is a long way to go before we can relax and start to dream about another season.

Gordon and Martin - still on duty

And Now We Wait...

We now await the most important decision in Darlington's 129-year history as tomorrow the deliberations will finally end and administrator Harvey Madden will put us out of our misery, one way or another.

If it proves to be the end I'm sure we will all be feeling pretty numb and the consequences of our demise will not sink in for quite a while.

I remain optimistic, based on no real reason whatsover, probably because I find it hard to accept that my matchday routine might disappear forever. I'm too old to change my habits.

Let's hope I don't have to...

Darlo's Last Stand?

The sense of expectancy as I woke was similar to that before our trip to Wembley for the FA Trophy final just a few months ago - an overwhelming sense of nervousness and unease - but for totally different reasons this time.  Not a good feeling either.

I was out of the house by 5:30am and had a nice stress-free journey to King's X - Da Vinci's was just opening as I got there.  I had a ravenous appetite though and the breakfast hit the spot.

I walked up to Euston with my train being called just as I walked onto the concourse.  I was originally travelling on my own and had plumped for first class as it wasn't much dearer than standard.

Arrival at Barrow

But with the advent of administration and the prospect of this being our last ever game, I was joined by Iain Swalwell and Paul Brown, who had also left home at a ridiculously early hour, and they paid the £15 upgrade so they could join me. I'm worth it!

A nice quiet journey and we arrived at Lancaster to find John Bell on the platform - by rights he should have been at Barrow already but his connections let him down.

Our connection to Barrow was on time and it was a very pleasant journey with some beautiful scenery as well as opportunities for me to do a bit of bird-watching as we travelled between Arnside and Grange-over-Sands. A shame the weather wasn't a bit brighter.

Brian up for the ball


We arrived on time at Barrow and it was only a couple of hundred yards walk to the pub, the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel.  This place is owned by Lancaster Brewery and as such four of their beers were on sale: Blonde, Amber, Red and Black.

There were also some guest ales - Beartown Santa's Claws, Oxfordshire Ales Triple B, Wincle Wassale and Woodlands Oak Beauty.

The hotel bar was a bit quiet when we got in but it slowly started to fill with Darlo fans, including Rich, John and Andy who'd been on the same train as us.

However we were surprised when they didn't follow us but I'd forgotten that they had to go to Wetherspoons for their breakfast first. They also had retired Northern Echo columnist and Northern League chairman, Mike Amos, in tow.

I tried a good few of the beers on offer and they were OK without being brilliant - usually served with heads that were a bit too frothy and large for my liking so I decided to have a few bottles as well seeing as they had a decent foreign selection - I opted for Duvel and Brooklyn Brown Ale.

Trev joined us - as did old chum Neil Raper whose son Lewis famously gave Gazza a hard time when he (Lewis) ran the line - at the grand age of 11 - at the fundraising game several years ago.  It was good to hear from Neil that Lewis is making his way up the refereeing ladder.

MB-W goes down at the edge of the box

Just as we were about to depart for the Holker Street, Brian turns up - thankfully he was driving and is only allowed a quick half pint before we hustle back out of the door and onto the game.

We stopped for a few photos at the statue of Emlyn Hughes opposite the hotel - he is a celebrated son of Barrow even though his home town club weren't interested in him, Hughes having to join Blackpool instead as he started his career.

It took about ten minutes to walk to the ground and there was a huge queue at the away turnstiles when we arrived.  I left the others to join the queue while I circumnavigated the ground in order to collect my press pass.

Once inside there was already a healthy number of Darlo fans on the uncovered away terrace plus quite a few TV cameras ready to catch all the emotion that the occasion promised.

I set about getting a few fans' pictures - a lot of friendly faces, especially given the sad circumstances and it was especially good to see that Steve Harland had managed to swap his shift and get here.  Steve is doing a grand job hiring bands for gigs in Stockton these days and keeping the old punks of Teesside entertained.

As I was snapping the news came over the tannoy that the game was going to be delayed by 15 mins due to the queues at the away end.

Dancing with poles?

As the teams took the pitch there was a great roar from the away end but also a lot of applause from the home fans who were generous with their support for Darlo and their fans throughout.

The masses of Darlo fans were obviously hoping for a fairy-tale ending - if that what it turns out to be - for this last game. Sadly it was not to be but it wasn't the result that mattered.

The Darlo team for this historic occasion was Russell, Arnison, Hatch, Taylor, Brown; McReady, Chandler, Bridge-Wilkinson, Rundle; Hopson; Bowman with subs being Nixon (gk), P Gray, Harrison, Ramshaw and J Gray.

For a decent proportion of the first half Darlington gave as good as they got and pressed forward, attacking the Barrow goal in front of the Darlo fans and went close on a couple of occasions.

Unfortunately Darlo never really got into the flowing style that has become a trademark of their play under caretaker Craig Liddle and Barrow always looked that little bit sharper - no doubt the lack of training together in recent weeks can't have helped.

Spike Lee was injured and joined Liddle on the away bench - Liam Hatch was therefore drafted in with Kris Taylor to make up the centre-back pairing which meant Ryan Bowman was leading the Darlo line.

Unfortunately he got very little joy out of former Darlo loanee Danny Hone who was first to virtually all of the high balls during the game and was probably the pick of the Barrow defence.

Adam Rundle - note the sponsor
logo has been taped over

Adam Rundle, John McReady and Dale Hopson were all very busy and created some decent movement but failed to really attack the goal.

Barrow took the lead quite early on as Adam Boyes shot speculatively at goal - normally Sam Russell would have easily dealt with this sort of shot.  Perhaps his mind wasn't totally there as the ball proceeded to slip through his hands and into the net.

The home team then doubled their lead after Cook headed home from a cross.  Aaron Brown looked to have been fouled in the build-up but referee Amy Fearn didn't agree.

There was then a loud shout for a Darlo penalty as Mark Bridge-Wilkinson was fouled on the edge of the box.  The ref wasn't fooled and just gave a free-kick.  Paul Arnison came over to the linesman stood in front of me and tried to persuade him it was inside the box. Do they ever change their minds?

At the break I had a wander round and had a chat with a few old faces - former neighbour Geoff Thompson was wearing a replica shirt that was a bit tighter than it used to be.  I also saw the various members of the Darlington FC Rescue Group and had a chat with Doug Embleton who was busy taking his own shots of the occasion.

The game was also notable for the fact that it was the first time a female official has taken charge of a game at Holker Street and it wasn't exactly an impressive debut.  She seemed inconsistent, especially with regards to free-kicks, and made some odd decisions but to be fair, I've seen worse at this level.

She is quite a wee thing though and sometimes she seemed to take far too long sorting out the players when there was a freekick as the players towered over her and tended to ignore her.  Maybe an assertiveness course would be useful.

But I'm not trying to suggest she was in any culpable for the result as Darlington were not at their best and in the second half, chances were few and far between as the Quakers were on the back foot for the most part.

For the second half I'd positioned myself close to the Darlo dugout - Craig Liddle was constantly animated as he tried to get us back into the game but looked an increasingly frustrated figure as we failed to a significant impact.

Hatch was throwing himself into his defensive duties and in the end he paid the price as he had to go off with an injury, being replaced by one of the youth team, Scott Harrison, who made a good impression.

McReady was replaced by James Gray in an effort to put some more energy into our attack and then Rundle was replaced by another youth team player, Rob Ramshaw who made a ten-minute senior debut.

Darlo legend Craig Liddle

Unfortunately Martin and I had booked our rail tickets before the significance of this game was known and we had to depart Barrow station at 5:21pm. 

This meant missing the three minutes of added time and the subsequent emotional scenes as the players and fans applauded each other. Perhaps this was just as well as it probably would have been too emotional for us.

Our train was on time and we headed back to Preston accompanied by Trev, Pete, Karl and Mike and a few younger Darlo fans who lived in the north-west.  The journey was spent musing over some of the grounds we might end up visiting if we find ourselves lower down the pyramid in some form or another.

We left Trev, Karl and Mike at Preston - our connection at Preston there was also on-time - a cup of tea, a read of the programme (spotting the typo on the front page - the game was in 2011 apparently!) and then a snooze before we pulled in Euston on time twenty minutes earlier than planned.

Martin, Pete and I headed to the Euston Tap for some consolatory beers - it was pretty hectic for a Saturday night and the staff were only just coping. 

As ever though, some excellent beers on offer - I tried the Red Willow Ageless, Thornbridge Sequoia (which Martin got a taste for too) and the Northcote Brewery/Euston Tap Collaboration One for the Road.

The latter is the last brew to be made at Northcote as they have now decided to pack in brewing - which is a shame because One For The Road is very drinkable given it has about ten different hops in it (including some wild hops from Hackney).

And then time was called and it was time for bed.  The Euston Tap will be open for my business next week but will Darlo?