End of Season Review

[AndyPark]

Best Game:
Worst Game:
Highlight of the Season:
Player of the Season:
Surprise Package of the Season:
League Prediction for 15/16:


I'll go with the following.
Best Game: Darlington 3-2 Spennymoor. Atmosphere was bouncing, great end to end game and fantastic advert for non-league football.

Worst Game: Salford 2-0 Darlington. A shambles from start to finish. Nothing more.

Highlight of the Season: Finally going up via the play-offs at the 5th attempt in 19/20 years.

Player of the Season: Split between Tom Portas/Graeme Armstrong individually - But it's hard to single anyone out after great performances from every single player in the team.

Surprise Package of the Season: Peter Jameson, I didn't expect him to retain his 1st team place given Bell's experience etc. But he's had a brilliant season and deserves all the plaudits he receives.

League Prediction for 15/16: 5th.

[shawry]

Best Game: Spenny playoff game

Worst: Kendal away, going 3-0 down in 15 minutes isnt acceptable on any level.

Highlight: achieving the initial fund raising target to properly kick start our return home

Player of the season: Portas/White

Surprise package: the reserves, showed that we have some good young players to call upon if we are in need of bodies.

Prediction: not bothered, as long as we continue to show good progress on and off the field then I'll be happy with not being relegated, though I think we should be about the playoffs again.

[al_quaker]

Best Game: Ignoring the two obvious playoff matches, I'll go for Spennymoor away. The best I've seen us play since we got demoted down the leagues.
Worst Game: Warrington at home. No fault of anybody at Darlington, but after months of waiting, and a not inconsiderable amount to get to the game, to only get half an hour left a real sour taste in the mount. Thanks Mr Reid.
Highlight of the Season:Smashing the fund raising target runs it close, but its got to be a playoff victory at last.
Player of the Season: Portas
Surprise Package of the Season: Jameson
League Prediction for 15/16: Top 5.

[Darlo_Pete]

Best game, I'll go for Spennymoor away as well. We played brilliantly and it nicely set us up for the rest of the season.
Worst game, Salford away. We went with such high expectations and the performance was nothing short of shambolic.

[dickdarlington]

Best Game: I'm going for the best performance the lads gave. Our 3-0 win at home to Scarborough. We made a very decent side look useless.

Worst Game: Thankfully I wasn't at Kendal, so I'll have to go with Clitheroe. I missed our goal due to traffic, and then proceeded to watch us deflate like a slow puncture.

Highlight of the Season: Can't decide between the two play-offs. Either when Dowson scored the winner v Spenny, or the 10 mins after Army got the second v Brig. Tin Shed was bouncing for both

Player of the Season: Easy. Tom Portas. Mr Reliable.

Surprise Package of the Season: The turn around in fortunes of Liam Hatch. From almost leaving the club after St Neots, to being integral in saving the day v Spenny. I didn't expect that to happen back in January

League Prediction for 15/16: 6th. Finishing strongly after a tough adjustment to the next step up, combined with a bit of a cup run.

[CrazyDarlo]

Best game: Has to be the play off semi against Spennymoor
Worst game: Wasn't at Salford so i'd have to go with Kendal away
Highlight: Play off final against Bamber Bridge
Player of the season: Absolutely no doubt Tom Portas
Surprise package: Pete Jameson
League prediction: 4th, i think it's not to ambitious given the crowds we will bring once we are at BM

[AIDO]

Best Game: .... Play-Off Final v Bamber Bridge ..... we got promoted .... enough said!
Worst Game: .... Kendal away .... also includes worst individual performance award to Cartwright ...
Highlight of the Season: Dowson's last minute winner v Evenwood Town .... with Hatchy's equaliser minutes earlier not far behind ....
Player of the Season: .... Amar Purewal ... Despite promotion, we were never quite the same team without him!
Surprise Package of the Season: .... Cartman actually playing for us .... never saw that coming ...
League Prediction for 15/16: .... unreservedly .... Champions ..... Our momentum is already accelerating .... Back in Darlo ...... now watch us go ....

[My opinion]

Sorry, but have to disagree with you on the worst prformance..I think that Brownie gets that for what he did (or didn't do) in the same game v Kendal..No-one was surprised to see him substituted after 15 mins..Even he admitted it was his worst performance of the season
Agree with you on everything else though

[AIDO]

.... in all fairness, Browny had a stinker then too, I agree, but For the crucial first goal, he was trying to cover for that lad being skinned (again, and we had barely kicked off). When we got back to 2-3, and going for the equaliser, Kendal broke .... but went into the corner to waste time. Cartwright was outwitted again, trying to win the ball back, and their lad finished us off, when really we had them on the deck .... Cartwright had 90 minutes of ineptness .......

[divas]

.... in all fairness, Browny had a stinker then too, I agree, but For the crucial first goal, he was trying to cover for that lad being skinned (again, and we had barely kicked off). When we got back to 2-3, and going for the equaliser, Kendal broke .... but went into the corner to waste time. Cartwright was outwitted again, trying to win the ball back, and their lad finished us off, when really we had them on the deck .... Cartwright had 90 minutes of ineptness .......

He'd have had a job to get a tackle in for their 4th given he'd been sat on the bench for 40 minutes having been subbed for Hatch just after HT.....

He actually had 49 minutes of ineffectiveness.....

Brown and Jameson were the culprits that day I'm afraid.

[Breedon]

Best Game: Spennymoor away. Obviously the playoff game against them was insanely exciting, but really it was a nerve shredding back and forth war of a game, where as we absolutely took them to pieces in the league game away. By far the best team performance of the season I saw.

Worst Game: Northwich at home. Bit of a curve ball with the obvious choice being Salford, but I could rationalize Salford. The best team in the league away, and if anything we tried too hard, the occasion got the best of the players and a combination of a very savvy Salford side who handled it a lot better than us and a ref who had made his mind up who was winning before kick off got the best of the lads. The Northwich game was an uncharacteristic rolling over where we gave them a joke goal in the first minute and didn't look even remotely interested in trying to have a go back at them despite the importance of the game. The way the players bounced back and gave 150% in every game after that one off massive let down on the effort front was admirable.

Highlight of the Season: Dowson's winner against Spennymoor in the playoff semi. Second only to Chris Senior's goal at Wembley in post Feethams Darlo history IMO!

Player of the Season: Tom Portas

Surprise Package of the Season: Nathan Cartman. I expected a nippy tap in merchant who only contributed in the box. What we have is a very well rounded footballer who puts an enormous shift in over 2/3rds of the pitch, chases down every lost cause, and chips in creatively as well as with goals.

League Prediction for 15/16: I think we can nick a playoff spot but it wont be catastrophic if we're a little off the pace. An FA cup run would be lovely from this level.