In the build up to the re-play of the FA Trophy final this Saturday, we're going back through the memories of Darlington fans and officials from that day.

Today, Dave Mills recalls his memories, that we printed as part of "In the Dying Seconds"

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"I just remember sinking to my knees in an uncontrollable crying heap”

The anticipation during that period between the semi final and final was almost unbearable. Quakers were going to Wembley again, the new Wembley where surely this time we could make up for the heartache of two play off final defeats under the old Twin Towers.

The day of the final made for a very early start – 2am to be exact! I had agreed to meet some friends at Stanmore Tube station car park at 6am and the plan was to spend a bit of time in central London before the game. First part of the plan went well, I duly set off at 2.00am and was parked up at Stanmore by 5.45am only to receive a call from my friend that he was delayed and so we agreed to meet up later on Wembley Way.

With me on that day were my wife Joanne, daughter Kayleigh and her boyfriend Matthew, who had never even seen Darlo play before. He supports Sunderland but I convinced him to come and see a successful team play. I even got him to wear one of my Darlo shirts! My wife and I chatted non-stop all the way down the M1 about what the score would be, who would score for Quakers, how many Darlo fans would be in attendance, what the overall attendance would be, would it be sunny, what the view would be like from our seats, the chat never ended. Many times during the journey down I felt like pinching myself just to make sure I was on my way to Wembley again. Needless to say my daughter and her boyfriend slept in the back seats all the way down.

The morning flew by. We had breakfast in the Strand and then a coffee in Covent Garden before taking the Tube to Wembley Park. It’s amazing how many familiar Darlo faces there were in London that morning, people that came to the Arena and Feethams before it. The new Wembley Stadium looked magnificent and the Arch was very impressive. Wembley Way, however, looked exactly the same as it did in 1996 and 2000 for the play off finals. In those two previous finals I bought a scarf from a kiosk on Wembley Way and I was amazed to find the very kiosk in exactly the same location half way up Wembley Way, so another scarf was bought to add to my Wembley collection. I remember thinking how special it would be to be waving my new scarf on the way back down Wembley Way after we’d lifted the Trophy! We met up with our friends and slowly walked all the way around the outside of the stadium and it quickly dawned on me that Darlo fans were going to be greatly outnumbered by fans from Mansfield. We bumped into my daughter’s former ice skating coach, Simon Briggs, a diehard Mansfield fan, whom we hadn’t seen for more than twelve years. He was with his father and we shared some good banter about the match to come. Needless to say I couldn’t convince Simon that the Stags were going to lose!

I’d visited the new Wembley in 2009 for a full stadium tour and I remember it was being prepared for a Take That concert later that week. I remember being allowed to touch the FA Cup and have my photograph taken with it in the Royal Box and I thought things couldn’t get any better than that, but how wrong I was. To enter the turnstile at the Darlo end at about 2pm, be around so many fans in the concourse and then emerge into the May sunshine in the stand behind the goal brought the first of many tears to my eye that day. It was black and white everywhere, men, women, children turning out in their thousands!! Our seats were behind the goal, towards the back of the first tier, at the edge of the six yard box – a fantastic view! The players had just started their warm up and I had the obligatory photo taken of me in the stand with the players warming up on the pitch behind me.

The match was a really good contest although I always felt that Darlo were in control and certainly had the better chances. After half an hour I and 10,000 other Quakers fans thought that Gary Smith had been brought down in the penalty area but ref Stuart Attwell didn’t give it. It was a big blow to lose Gary just before half time as I thought he was having one of his best games for Darlo, but his replacement Aman Verma more than held his own. Then of course we had two great chances to score in the second half. A blistering free kick from 25 yards out by Marc Bridge-Wilkinson came back off an upright and a diving header by Tommy Wright went just wide with a couple of minutes of normal time remaining.

And so to extra time. As the dreaded penalty shootout loomed, Darlo attacked for what was surely one last chance. In the 119th minute, an Aaron Brown long throw found Tommy Wright, who got to the ball ahead of their keeper to send a looping header towards the Mansfield goal. The ball hit the bar before falling to Chris Senior who headed into the roof of the net to send the 10,000 Darlington fans into raptures. In my 40 years of supporting the Quakers I have never seen so many people become so overjoyed with pleasure, making so much noise and hugging everyone within grabbing distance. Mark Cooper ran onto the pitch to celebrate with the players in Bob Stokoe style and before I knew it the final whistle had blown and I just remember sinking to my knees in an uncontrollable crying heap. It’s difficult to describe the feeling of seeing Darlo win a cup final at Wembley, safe to say that I have never or probably will never experience anything like it ever again in my lifetime. The pride and passion of the moment will live with me forever and I have a commemorative tattoo on my right arm of the Quaker badge and a simple inscription – FA Trophy Winners May 2011, Wembley!

By the time Ian Miller lifted the Trophy only a smattering of Stags fans remained inside the stadium. We were singing and dancing as the players paraded the Trophy in front of us and that seemed to go on for ages. Now singing and dancing at a football match is something you would never normally see me do! To see Jamie Chandler and Paul Arnison showering the rest of the squad with champagne whilst ‘We Are the Champions’ bellowed out from the PA system said it all really – Darlo had won the FA Trophy at Wembley Stadium. I remember a massive cheer going up when kit man Andrew ‘Tommo’ Thompson joined in the fun jumping up and down with the Trophy – another lifelong and very popular Darlo fan at heart!

The Tube ride back to Stanmore car park was full of singing Darlo fans and it was about 7pm by the time we made our way back up the M1. I was exhausted, so much so that by Doncaster I did something that I don’t normally do in the car – let my wife drive me home whilst I had a sleep!

I remember thinking that the day marked a bright new future for Darlington Football Club. A decent squad of players, decent manager, success of winning a cup final and I felt more optimistic about the new season than I had done for many seasons. Little did we know that within six months Quakers would be plunged into their third administration and what seemed like no way back.