Promotion winners

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Ray Simpson
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:01 pm
Team Supported: Darlington

Promotion winners

Post by Ray Simpson » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:52 pm

Please can this be stickied?

Dear all;
As you may know from the recent fans forum, I am starting work on another Darlington book about promotion winners, chiefly the 1966, 1985, 1990, 1991 and 2013 successes. Hopefully, the book will be published in the autumn of 2015. There will also be another project to organise a reunion of as many old players as possible, similar to the one we organised for Farewell to Feethams back in 2003. Again, that will be sometime in 2015.

The response I had from fans for memories of Wembley and the 2013 promotion campaign was tremendous (thanks again), and I would like people once again to dig deep into their memory banks regarding past promotion campaigns, and recount their feelings and memories of those successes. As with “In the Dying Seconds”, I want to recapture the flavour and emotion of the moment. There are some really good ones, none more so than Gary Coatsworth’s dramatic winner at Welling (bettered only maybe by Chris Senior’s in the Trophy final.) Not quite in the dying seconds, but there were a lot of very nervous Darlington fans inside the Welling ground that day.

Here are a few sample questions to jog your memory. Just let it flow.

Please pass the word on to other people – obviously some might not have internet access. I’ll happily arrange to meet them or ring them.

Please mail your memories to raysimpson1uk@yahoo.co.uk, and I’ll follow up from there. I obtained some great memories last time by swopping e mails with people and jogging their memories.

1965-66 season
What memories do you have of the 1965-66 promotion campaign?
Who did you used to go to games with? Did you stand in the Tin Shed at home games, or did you stand/sit somewhere else? Did you change ends at half time?
Did you go to any away games?
Did you go to the home and away games against Doncaster at Easter? Were you held up on the way to Doncaster’s ground?
Did you go to First Division Blackpool when we won in the Football League Cup?
Who was your favourite player from that season? Bobby Cummings, John Peverell, Ron Greener, Alan Sproates, Ray Yeoman?
What was your favourite match?
How did you feel about winning promotion? Could you believe that there were so many people inside Feethams for the last three home games? (nearly 40,000)

What did you think of Lol Morgan as a manager?

1984-85 season
What memories do you have of the 1984-85 campaign?
Who did you used to go to games with? Did you stand in the Tin Shed at home games, or did you stand/sit somewhere else? Did you change ends at half time?


I know it wasn’t a league game, but what are your memories of the 1985 FA Cup ties against Middlesbrough? What can you remember about the game at Ayresome Park? Did you think Darlo would win the replay? What are your memories of the build up to the replay, considering that there was a big crowd and a degree of crowd trouble?
What can you remember about the goals that were scored that night?

Did you think we would beat Telford in the next round? How did you feel when we lost the replay?

Did you go to any of the Sunday games that season? How did you feel about seeing a bigger than average crowd?

Did you go to Hartlepool when we won 2-1?

How did you feel when we started to wobble near the end of the season? (We lost three and drew one before the game at Crewe)

Did you go to Crewe on the night we won promotion? How did you feel when Smudger put through his own goal? How did you feel when we fought back and won?

Were you in the motorway service area on the way home when the team stopped there? Did you stand up and cheer?

What did you think of Cyril Knowles as a manager?

1989-90 season
What memories do you have of the 1989-90 campaign?
Who did you used to go to games with? Did you stand in the Tin Shed at home games, or did you stand/sit somewhere else? Did you change ends at half time?

How did you feel when the club dropped out of the Football League?
How did you feel about visiting some brand new grounds? Were the facilities what you expected, were the match officials better or worse than you expected? Was the standard of opposition better or worse than you expected?
Did you go to many away games, such as Merthyr Tydfil, Yeovil, Enfield, Fisher? What was your favourite away ground – why?
What was your favourite goal from that season? David Cork v Boston?
Were you at Cheltenham when Les McJannet was sent off?

What can you remember about the FA Cup game against Halifax Town? Can you remember Les McJannet and Drew Coverdale scoring?

Did you go to Cambridge in the third round? Did you think that we would win the replay?


Did you go to Leek Town for the FA Trophy quarter final? Did you think that Darlo were going to Wembley? How did you feel when we lost?

Were you at Altrincham when Kevan Smith was wrongly sent off?

Were you at the Battle of Northwich when Mark Prudhoe was injured?

Were you at Feethams when David Cork scored four v Boston?

Did you go to Barnet? How did you feel about the win that day?
Did you go to Kidderminster? How did you feel when they scored the last minute winner?
Did you go to Welling? Did you know the score updates from the Barnet game?
What can you remember about the goal? What did you do to celebrate?

Who was your favourite player that season? Kevan Smith, Kevin Todd, Fred Barber, Phil Lloyd, Garrty MacDonald, Steve Tupling, Carl Airey?

1990-91 season.
What are your best memories of the 1990-91 season?
Who did you used to go to games with? Did you stand in the Tin Shed at home games, or did you stand/sit somewhere else? Did you change ends at half time?


Did you go to Gillingham for the opening away game?
Did you go to many away games? What was your favourite?

After which game did you think that we might actually win promotion?

What was your best goal of the season? Mick Tait v Walsall?

Can you remember the night when referee Tom Fitzharris was hit by an apple (v Gillingham)?

Can you remember the night when two Grimsby players were sent off for fighting with each other?

Were you at Hartlepool when Mark Prudhoe had a blinder?

After the defeat at Scunthorpe in the penultimate away game, did you think that we were going to blow automatic promotion?

How did you feel before the Rochdale home game on the last day of the season? How did you feel when we scored early on?
How did you feel when you saw Smudger lift the championship trophy?

What were your thoughts on Brian Little as a manager?

How did you feel when Brian Little resigned?


I haven’t been able to establish exactly which game it was, but were you at Feethams the night Smudger knocked the letter Q off the Quakers Sports centre sign?

Please mail your memories to raysimpson1uk@yahoo.co.uk, and I’ll follow up from there.

many thanks

Ray Simpson
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:01 pm
Team Supported: Darlington

Re: Promotion winners

Post by Ray Simpson » Fri Feb 21, 2014 10:51 pm

Dear all:
I thought I'd try to jog some memories of random games!
What can you remember about the last week of the Conference 1989-90 season?
Did you go to Kidderminster on the night Darlo lost 3-2? Did you think that we were going to hold on to a 2-2 draw? How did you feel when Kiddie scored in the last minute?
Did you go to Macclesfield the following night to support them against Barnet? How did you feel when Barnet won 1-0?
Who did you go with to Welling? Where did you sit/stand in the ground? Were you surprised to see around 1,000 Darlo fans in the ground?
How did you feel when you heard that Barnet were winning easily at Chorley, and we were still 0-0?
What can you remember about Gary Coatsworth's goal? What did you do when the ball went in? Did you run on to the pitch?
How did you feel when the final whistle went? How did you feel when you saw Kevan Smith left the Conference Trophy?

Drop me a line with your memories on raysimpson1uk@yahoo.co.uk -- or indeed, if you have any memories of anything from the promotion winning seasons.

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