Simon Weatherill continues his Memory Match series with the FA Cup first round home game against Grimsby Town on 16^th November 1968.

Darlington kicked off the 1968/69 season in fantastic form, with a fourteen match unbeaten run. Eight wins and six draws meant that the Quakers topped the Division Four table and were the last unbeaten team in the Football League. Their incredible run included eleven clean sheets and hopes were high that the team could repeat the promotion exploits of the 65/66 squad.

Manager Ray Yeoman had made two key signings in the summer to add to the squad that had finished in 16th place in the previous season. Ken Hale was brought in from Oxford United and immediately installed as team captain. He was an experienced midfield player who had previously played for Newcastle, where he’d made 30 first team appearances, Coventry (98 apps) and Oxford (64 apps). Yeoman also persuaded Lance Robson to return to the club after a four year absence. The centre forward had retired from the professional game and gone to Gateshead to play part time but Yeoman wanted the former Feethams favourite back at the club to lead the line. The two players were influential as Darlington stormed to the top of the table. At the beginning of October the squad was strengthened further by the signing of Allan Gauden, a right winger from Sunderland, for £5,000.

The draw for the first round of the FA Cup paired the Quakers with Grimsby Town. The tie would take place at Feethams on November 16th, and would provide a welcome respite from the pressures of being top of the league. The Quakers were clear favourites to win the tie, having suffered only one defeat in their 18 league games so far, although they had wobbled slightly in the previous two home games with a defeat by Exeter City and then having to settle for a draw with Peterborough after leading 3-1. They currently topped the table with 26 points, while their opponents sat fourth from bottom with 14 points. The Quakers had a couple of injury problems in the run up to the cup tie. Alan Sproates suffered a badly cut eye in training that required stitches and so missed the game, and his place on the left wing was taken by Harry Kirk. John Peverell sprained an ankle in training and was forced to miss his first game through injury in nine years. He was replaced at right back by Neville Chapman, making his first appearance of the season. Peter Carr, a local 17 year old wing half, was named as substitute.

A crowd of 6,089 turned out for the game to see the Quakers playing in their changed kit of all blue. In those days it was common practice for the home team to change in the event of a colour clash in an FA competition. The home side made a nervous start to the game, probably because of their recent home performances, but they were never put under any pressure by their visitors, who quite clearly had come for a draw and showed no attacking ambitions at all. Consequently the Quakers were allowed to dominate the game and any nervousness disappeared as they gained total control. Several good openings were squandered, mainly by Lance Robson, who was having an off day in front of goal, but perhaps could be excused as he’d suffered a bad case of food poisoning the night before the game. Jimmy Lawton also missed a good chance, as did Allan Gauden, who managed to scoop the ball over the bar from a few yards out. Just as it seemed the first half would end goalless, the Quakers took the lead on the stroke of half time with a brilliant five man move, started and finished by Ken Hale when he crashed a superb volley into the net.

The second half continued in the same vein as the first with Darlington doing all the pressing and Grimsby quite happy to sit back and soak up the pressure. Left winger Harry Kirk started the half in fine style, twice cutting in from his wing and hitting long range shots just off target. The home side scored the second goal that their play deserved after 67 minutes. Robson won a 50-50 ball just over the half way line, shouldered his way past an opponent and unleashed an unstoppable drive from 35 yards out, leaving visiting keeper Macey a helpless spectator.

Robson’s goal finally sparked some kind of attacking effort by the visitors, and they missed three good late chances, but the Quakers had missed many more than that, so Grimsby couldn’t claim to have been particularly unlucky. Robson finished off an eventful afternoon by getting a boot in the face that pierced his lip and knocked out a tooth. Although two great goals grabbed all the headlines it was the steady, professional team performance that pleased manager Yeoman, getting the job done with the minimum of fuss and earning a second round tie at home to Barnsley, who won after a replay.

The programme for the 1968/69 season cost 9d and consisted of 16 pages, of which more than half were adverts. It was a standard format for this period in the club’s history. The layout of the programme didn’t vary from the mid 60s to the early 70s, only the front cover changed. This season it featured a rather crude cartoon drawing of three players and was printed in various colours. (White, green, yellow, pink or blue.) The programme comprised of an editorial piece, an action photo of a previous match, half time scoreboard, a star spot, pen pictures of the opposition, fixtures, results and tables for first team and reserves, appearances and goal scorers and today’s team line ups.

Team v Grimsby: 1 Tony Moor 2 Neville Chapman 3 Brian Keeble 4 Les O’Neill 5 Brian Albeson 6 Joe Jacques 7 Allan Gauden 8 Jimmy Lawton 9 Lance Robson 10 Ken Hale 11 Harry Kirk 12 Peter Carr (not used)