Goalkeeper Fred Barber helped Quakers to win promotion from the old Fourth Division in 1985, before moving to First Division Everton. He went on to play for twelve more clubs, before becoming a successful goalkeeping coach.

This article has been adapted from the Farewell to Feethams book.

Local born Fred always wanted to play for Quakers, although he nearly went to Rochdale.

"I was offered a two year apprenticeship by Darlington, but then the Rochdale manager, Peter Madden, offered me a two year apprenticeship followed by one year as a professional.

"I accepted Darlington's offer, because I lived nearby and I wanted to play for my home town club. I was a regular in the reserves, and it really toughened me up, because they played in the Northern League at that time against a real mixture of players.”

One day, in his second season in the reserves, Fred went on an outward bounds course to Hexham with the rest of the apprentices. "On the Thursday night, Brian Honour and I were told that we had to report for first team training the following day. I was told that Pat Cuff, the keeper at the time, had suffered an ankle injury, so I would be playing.

"I banned all my family from going to the game, against Stockport at Feethams.

"Five minutes into the game, Tommy Sword, their big centre half, headed towards the bottom corner, and even though I got my hand to the ball, I couldn't stop it going in.

"As I turned round, there were four of my cousins all standing behind the goal, saying never mind. I was very embarrassed.

"Fortunately, it got better for me as the game went on, and I made a goal for Alan Walsh, with a long punt up the field, and we won 3-1. I was voted man of the match, and when I went to the boardroom for my award later, I was asked about a council van parked at the back of the car park -- and there were my cousins waiting to give me a lift!"

Fred had a glorious start to his Feethams career. "I won four man of the match awards in a row. We drew at Hull when they had Billy Whitehurst and Emlyn Hughes in their team, beat Hartlepool, but lost at Wimbledon. At the end of the month, I got a trophy for best goalkeeper in the division from Match magazine."

As all keepers know, there are downs as well as ups. The following season, after Pat Cuff had been released, Quakers were hammered 7-0 at York City. "I let a really soft goal in, and afterwards Billy Elliott told me that if I'd done that on my debut, then I wouldn't have played any more for the first team.

"I was booked for timewasting by George Courtney after ten minutes, when we were losing two or three nil, and when George sent his report in, he got my name wrong. He’d put my brother’s name, Paul, down!

"Afterwards, we are all invited to see the Lord Mayor of York, who just happened to be a Darlington fan. We couldn't turn the invitation down, so of course I got all the jokes -- like what do you want to drink, Fred? Seven up?"

Cyril Knowles took over from Elliott for the start of the 1983-84 season, and drove his players hard. "We played at Torquay in a midweek game, and in those days, we went there and back in the same day. I saw my milkman when I went out in the morning, and I saw him again when I arrived home the following morning.

"Cyril didn't think we had played well, so he had us all in for training the day after the match. Cyril was a hard man, and ruled by fear. He used to like playing "murderball" in the Sports Centre as part of the warm up, and tackles used to fly everywhere.”

Fred was the hero of possibly one of Quakers' biggest giantkillings, the FA Cup win over Middlesbrough in January 1985. The first game was at Ayresome Park, and Fred says: "Irving Nattress put a header towards the top corner early in the game, and I took off and managed to push the ball over. I didn't realise how good a save it was until I saw the picture in the Echo the following Monday."

Quakers drew 0-0 in that game, and the replay was three days later, with 14,237 packed into Feethams. "There was a lot of trouble that night. We went into a 2-0 lead, and then their fans invaded the pitch from behind my goal at the Polam Lane end. It took about fifteen minutes to clear them, and when we went back on the field, there were flick knives and all sorts scattered around my goalmouth.

"It unsettled us all, and they took advantage and pulled a goal back. But we held on."

That set up Quakers for a fourth round tie with Telford who were then in the Alliance Premier League. And, indirectly, a move to Everton a year later for Fred. "We drew 1-1 with them at our place, and then lost 3-0 in the replay at Telford.

“About a year later, Wales were playing Northern Ireland on the television, and Neville Southall, who played for Everton at the time, injured his ankle ligaments. At 10.30 the same night, Cyril phoned me up, and told me that Everton wanted to speak to me. I thought it was a wind-up, but he told me to hurry up, Howard Kendall wanted to see me.

"I didn't have a car at the time, so John Craggs drove me down to Everton and I quickly agreed terms with Howard Kendall. I couldn't believe that he had signed me, and he said that he had watched me play for Darlington that night at Telford, and he could remember me for the spring in my legs, which he thought made up for my lack of height.”