Feet Of Clay

Feet Of Clay

This is part of what remains of Feethams, former home to Darlington FC: they as of last month a former Football League team.

Accessible only by trespassing over a disused bridge and down potholed path strewn with broken glass and urban detritus, it's a metaphor for the demise of the club itself. No Highbury-style redevelopment here, despite the land being in the prosperous part of town and close to the centre. Property prices in Darlington being amongst the most stagnant in the country, apart from a nearby Sainsbury's no developer has yet dared to chance his arm.

And yet the story of Darlington FC in recent years has, of course, been the story of one particular chancer: George Reynolds.

Reynolds built his early reputation in criminal activities during the 1950s, and spent time in jail for smuggling watches in the 1960s. Amazingly, he went on to amass a £300 million fortune. He became the chairman of Darlington Football Club in 1999 and spent £20 million on a new stadium. He initially had big plans for the club, including the near-legendary near-signing of the near-notorious Faustino Asprilla, a man not averse from activity on the edge of legality himself. Many fans at the time were seduced by these almost-romantic gestures of faith.

However, Reynolds turned out to be all promises, and left the club in January 2004 to face impending tax evasion charges and a further jail sentence - since which time the club has struggled to cover the huge operating costs of what has become a huge white elephant. Feethams, originally a cricket ground which had been in existence since the 1860s and which had been leased to the club since its inception in 1883 (that's 1883) was left to the rack-and-ruin which you see above, although part of the land has thankfully at least reverted back to its cricketing roots.

Walking around the deserted and overgrown space now, it's possible to hear distant echoes of the cloth-capped and rattle-wielding railwaymen which must have formed its initial fan base. This alley, for example, winds round the back of the ground, its cobbles burnished by the thousands of passing feet which must have shuffled to and from league and cup games of yore. The club's history site tells of how in 1868 the club ventured into the FA Cup for the first time, receiving a to-become-ubiquitous 8-0 hammering by Grimsby Town.

There have been some highlights - the club reached the last sixteen of the cup in 1910. In 1923, 13,000 people squashed into the ground to watch a famous tie with Nottingham Forest, their first game on promotion to the old Second Division. In November 1955 the club made history, participating in the first FA Cup match to be played under flood lights at St. James' Park, Newcastle. By 1960, the club had its own floodlights, but in another stroke of ill-luck an electrical fault caused the entire West Stand to be burned to the ground.

I think perhaps the uninitiated reader may be beginning to get a sense of the history of this club.

In the 60s and 70s the club repeatedly flirted with demotion from the Football League. In the 1980s only donations from fans enabled the club to survive, and a small period of stability under Brian Little began which lasted into the early 90s. Following the move to the new stadium, some progress on the pitch under David Hodgson was notable and more than once the club just missed out on the play-offs.

Which, given the odd win, just about brings us up to date. After a disastrous 0910 season, mainly under the stewardship of Steve Staunton, who should - but ultimately didn't - know better, the club finished bottom of Division Two, fourteen points behind the club above (ironically nemesis Grimsby Town) with a lowest attendance of 1296 and a goal difference of minus 54.

And yet the club fights on. The official website crows proudly of how new signing 'Jamie Chandler admits he could have been playing League One football next season - but the persuasive powers of (new manager) Simon Davey prompted him to rejoin Darlington. The 21-year-old has penned a two-year deal at the Northern Echo Arena and is already looking forward to the 2010-11 season.'

Isn't that just football all over? All over the land, fans and clubs in a similar position scrape on by the skin of their teeth; last year's (in Darlo's case the last 100 or more years') results forgotten and a bright new dawn potentially emerging amid the broken glass and detritus of last season's disaster.

Season ticket news is available on the club's website, and if you hurry up before June 11 you can still get an adult ticket for £250. Under 16s can see the entire season for 46 quid. They're almost paying you.

Forget your replica-Lampard/England/Chelsea-etc pretend-success. Spend the average overall cost of going to one 'big four' Premiership game to buy into the history and future of this club and many others like it.