Darlo Uncovered

jjljks wrote:Never dull with Darlo. in the old days we had a crowd of 21k to watch us play Nat Lofthouse's Bolton Wanderers at Feethams (he was the Gary Linneker of his day), another night the Polam lane stand burned down, we had derbies on Boxing days with Poolie, getting thrashed 10-0 at Doncaster (my first ever away game), characters like Lance Robson (part time dentist who did one ad hoc extraction on the pitch on an irritating opposition centre half), "big" Ron Ferguson blasting in a goal from halfway line, a diminutive David Speedie who was on his last chance after a poor disciplinary & scoring record at Barnsley but then went on to play at Chelsea & capped by Scotland, relegation & re-elections, promotions even Championship of Conference, new stands & ground, megalomaniac owners & managers some good (Cyril Knowles) some bad (you know who they were/are), Wembley appearances
You could not make up our roller coaster club, so bipolar in performances, I for one can't live with it and can't live without it. Thanks to everyone who keep it alive

To be fair that 10-0 thrashing by Doncaster was with a very depleted team as a lot of our squad had gone down with flu.
The following year we lost 6-3 at Doncaster and the year after it was another 6-3 drubbing.

Yep, some improvement there! When you look where Donny (& Swansea) are now, you do wonder where it all went wrong though.

jjljks wrote:getting thrashed 10-0 at Doncaster

My (Donny-raised) dad knows just one football fact and that is that Donny's biggest win is 10-0 v Darlo

jjljks wrote:Yep, some improvement there! When you look where Donny (& Swansea) are now, you do wonder where it all went wrong though.

The failure to stay at Feethams and redevelop is a good start.

Vodka_Vic wrote:

jjljks wrote:Yep, some improvement there! When you look where Donny (& Swansea) are now, you do wonder where it all went wrong though.

The failure to stay at Feethams and redevelop is a good start.

When you see images of the new stand at Feethams full of fans and compare it to what we have now, its heart breaking.
The sad fact is that the stand was meant to stay in place and Feethams used for reserve games etc but a rental agreement couldnt be reached with the cricket club.
Reynolds ego and the greed of the cricket club are big factors in where we are now.

jjljks wrote:Yep, some improvement there! When you look where Donny (& Swansea) are now, you do wonder where it all went wrong though.

Yep, when I followed the Swans we played each other regularly... I started going to the arena when the Swans were in the league above... maybe 13/14 years ago, I'd only just moved here... the Swans were still at the Vetch (God rest its soul) my only visit to Feethams was in the away end... 2-2 on a Tuesday night, Steve Watkin scored, a rare sight!

In the Tony Petty days the turnstile operators let you in for free because the money was only going to him anyway... unfortunately I had a season ticket haha. We had some very low gates, but when the crunch came, we'd get a full house every week (not officially as most had gotten in for free, though they were giving to the fans fund). In the end a few people re-mortgaged their houses and the council built the stadium... we had a very supportive local authority. However, the key was we got promoted under Kenny Jackett... that and the 400-500k people within a 20 mile radius of the city. Had we not gotten out of the bottom division when we did we'd still be there now.

Teams like Donny tho are a very good example of what might have been for us, and what still could be... Rotherham are another one... although they didn't move from Milmoor til much later on. That's why the old adage "we've found our level" gets right on my wick...