Pic: Chris Booth
PRE-SEASON results aren’t always a good indication of how a club’s season will pan out. I’ve sat in many dressing rooms on the dawn of a new season after a brilliant run of performances in friendly games, only for the bubble of optimism to be pricked within minutes of the opening game kicking off.
Victories in pre-season are great for the confidence of players, but if we look at it with the aim of peaking at the right time, then July should be seen as a gradual process leading up to hitting the ground running come that first game.
From that perspective, I might have been somewhat hasty in predicting a successful season for Martin Gray’s Darlington side in the Vanarama National League North, but so far, it looks like I’m going to be proved right.
Impressive
I always take great pleasure in seeing my old clubs doing well and after my two seasons at Darlington in the late 90s, it is a club close to my heart and its demise since leaving Feethams in 2003 hasn’t been easy to watch.
From afar this summer was the first opportunity I’ve had to watch them play since their reincarnation in 2012. As part of Barnsley’s U23 coaching staff, we took our side up to the North East for a friendly and it was difficult to not be impressed by the side assembled by Gray, Brian Atkinson and Sean Gregan.
It was clear to me that this season was going to be more than just about consolidation. The game finished 3-2 to Darlington, but in truth the winning margin should have been even greater in their favour and the game came as a shock to many of our younger players.
It would be easy to mark out Darlington’s physical strength as a big asset for them, but their all-round game was mightily impressive and that’s why I earmarked them as promotion contenders.
They seem to have a great mixture of athleticism, composure and tactical knowhow to combat most styles of play that they will come across this season.
The addition of Josh Gillies and Mark Beck from Gateshead and Yeovil respectively has brought even more quality to the squad and Beck in particular looks, to my mind anyway, as if he’s a player whose status in this division is only temporary.
Phil Turnbull is a real classy player who has always had the ability to play higher, and in Gary Brown they have a centre-half of the like you just don’t see too often anymore.
Both Martin and Brian are ex-teammates of mine from our time together at Sunderland, and there can’t be many opposition benches that can boast as much football experience as they have when they’re sat alongside former West Brom skipper Sean Gregan.
I don’t think Martin would mind me describing him as a tenacious midfielder. As a player, he was someone who demanded high standards from those around him, making his move into coaching and management a natural progression.
He’s taken the chance of rebuilding a club from the ground up, and there’ll be no happier man than myself if he achieves the end game of taking the club back into the league, something that was a long, long way off four years ago. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but at least Martin has put it on the horizon again and made it a realistic target to aim for.
Special
Of course the financial landscape has changed at many clubs since Darlington were last a league club, and the next step will be the biggest test to date. But the continuity and stability that has been brought to the club under Martin is remarkable given the circumstances in which he’s had to work.
Darlington fans aren’t alone in being the real victims of bad management by former owners of clubs, and they won’t be the last. But if anyone deserves to be back in the league, it’s them.
My first club may have been Sunderland, but Darlington is where my career really began. It would be wonderful to see Martin Gray give some of his players their Football League debuts as manager of Darlington, like David Hodgson did for me.
