Darlo Uncovered

He doesn't deserve two cheers for taking the job, or for what he did once he took it. We'd just got relegated from the division above... this would have been one of the better jobs to take at that level. And find me a player who played back then who has a good word to say about him. What managers ha...

It was just immense - they were both monumental! There's one particular game that stands out to me. It was away at Plymouth, we got quite an early goal on the break and Crosby & Gregan were absolute man mountains. Plymouth were bombing the box with long balls but Crosby & Gregan gobbled them up, and...

coming away with a general feeling that we could have played better and that perhaps if David Hodgson has stayed we might have won more home games and then achieved automatic promotion. Within days I think Appleby went to Barnsley and Gary Bannister retired and it was obvious at that point that nex...

Nice piece. It was such an exciting time when Darlo Uncovered was kicking off. Even though Reynolds eventually lost the plot on his ego trip, there were a couple of great years that we will probably never see the like of again, and Uncovered was a big part of that. It was amazing to me at the time t...

I can't believe all of this hysteria about players missing training sessions. We're a part-time club... what do you expect? If we were a professional club in League Two and players were skipping training then it's perfectly fair to say that the manager has lost control, but in this instance I think ...

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/thieving-ex-celt-locked-up-9310591 Yes I read that about 'awld Dugald a while ago. Inspired by this I did a quick google of "Victor Kasule" and whaddya know, I found an even better story! https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20170119/28340...

I was very young at the time but I'm sure Celtic asked for a fee of 30K which was a lot less than we paid for Nick Cusack later on in the season. Someone said to me a few years ago that the problem with the deal was that Frank Gray had a policy that players had to live within a certain distance of D...

Dugald McArrison: another sliding doors moment that didn't work out for Ellison. What if we'd have bought him instead of Nick Cusack? A third of the price and they had a great partnership. We'd have certainly done better that season if we'd have had McArrison.

Yeah, Billy McEwan froze Ellison out basically, but it's probable that Ellison didn't show all that much willing when the going got tough. For a devout Lee Ellison fan like me, it was the most unbelievable news when Hodgson (who I was certainly no fan of) rescued him from non league and brought him ...

Almost certain it was v Wycombe in the dog days of McEwan's tenure, when we didn't win for months then Murray came in and we beat Colchester 7-3. It was definitely a 0-0, we were definitely there, it was definitely in autumn '93 and the only game which fits those criteria is one v Wycombe where we ...

He used to teach me at secondary school - he's a very good man. His love for the club was absolutely genuine. There's no doubt in my mind that something pretty bad must have happened to him at Darlo for him to make the decision to leave and then work elsewhere. He wouldn't have done this lightly. T...

He used to teach me at secondary school - he's a very good man. His love for the club was absolutely genuine. There's no doubt in my mind that something pretty bad must have happened to him at Darlo for him to make the decision to leave and then work elsewhere. He wouldn't have done this lightly.

I never cease to be amazed by how naive councillors and fans can get during proposals for new sporting facilities. There's always this assumption that just by having good facilities, you'll make money from conferences, pop concerts etc. Hardly any sports clubs actually make this work. There are a fe...

What about the game against Boston in 89/90? Didn't we score 4 goals in about 20 minutes? In fact, didn't David Cork score 4 in the first half?

As well as everything in Victor Kasule's colourful past, a lesser known fact is that he was actually in the pub in Glasgow that was demolished by that police helicopter! But fittingly, he survived to tell the tale... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/had-i-been-standing-next-to-him-id-probably-have...

My view of it was that we went two down very quickly, owing to some blistering pace for the goals, and then we just couldn't break them down. Not a good performance, but not all that surprising that we couldn't come back from it. There was a good reason why that team had such a strong away record, a...

Ah, that Torquay game. I remember it well. I don't think we let ourselves down particularly that day. I think that was more down to Rodney Jack basically... wasn't that his debut? I wasn't at that Chester away game but on the theme of best individual performances against Darlo, I'll nominate Michael...

Yup, MG knew that he had sufficient respect / hero worship within the fan base (and power within the club) to get away with what was quite extraordinarily unprofessional conduct at the forum. It was only the gravitas of the bigger picture that meant we didn't focus on it. I imagine his relationship...

I agree with Scott. The ownership model we have now was forced on us a last resort when a buyer could not be found in time. Some people have become pre-occupied with the success of this model, at whatever level that means the Football Club will settle. In some cases that will be due to our past exp...

Its not like we're in a rosy position at the moment, another year of huge operating losses despite hugely increased attendance figures is really tough to stomach. But isn't moving to a new ground that required an outlay to bring it up to standard an exceptional year? Correct me if I'm wrong - I'm n...

Its not like we're in a rosy position at the moment, another year of huge operating losses despite hugely increased attendance figures is really tough to stomach. But isn't moving to a new ground that required an outlay to bring it up to standard an exceptional year? Correct me if I'm wrong - I'm n...

The majority of people who are most vocal will want an investor, but this might be misleading. I reckon there are a load of people who want the club to settle at whatever level the club can actually sustain.

I think it'd be a bit sad to give up on the dream of a sustainable fan-run club so easily. I'd rather the club halved the playing budget to something it can afford than go out into the marketplace and be propped up by an 'investor' (like this football club could EVER be a financial investment!!!) I ...

Let's not forget his hat-trick at Hyde, the goal away at Blyth (where he cut in from a long way wide and turned a speculative long ball into a one-on-one), or the goals he scored against us for Ramsbottom (I think it was a total of 6). On his day he's unbelievable. Of course the higher up the league...

Jim Provett's doing coaching as well remember (and I'm just speculating, but perhaps he's doing other work for MG's coaching empire outside of DFC), so I'd be surprised if he was moved on. He's just the kind of person you want sitting on the bench because he's not going to complain about it - he's g...

There was an away game at Southend which I think we ended up losing 2-1 at a guess. Late 90s some time. I can still picture David Preece coming out of his box to clear a ball and falling in the lake outside the penalty area, which I think Southend scored the winning goal from. Pete: I can remember a...

Ah yes, that's right, we were rained on with all sorts after that, including a wheelie bin! Not content with deciding to let the poolie fans out of the gate right next to the away fans with no kind of cordon, at exactly the same time (why they didn't keep us back at the end I'll never know), the pol...

Also, wasn't there a derby match in that era where we completely turned it on its head late on? I remember we were absolutely hopeless for nearly all of it - completely outplayed - and then Hodgson made what looked like an utterly random decision to bring Richard Hope off the bench and put him up fr...

Home game against Swansea around about 98 sticks in the memory. 2-0 down well in to the second half, won 3-2 thanks to two late goals from Glenn Naylor. I remember that I hated Glenn Naylor at the time, but when I look back, he did seem to have a bit of a knack on his day (I'll never forget that hat...

I used to sit next to him in French at school. Proper good lad! And when he played for Norton against us over Christmas a couple of years ago he made some great saves. He'll definitely do a job. And he was Pools player of the year not all that long ago - think he got a bit unlucky after that to be h...