Here are David Johnston's programme notes from last Saturday's game

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to this afternoon’s game.

I’m delighted that Will Hatfield is once again a Darlington player. Things happened quickly last week when Will agreed a settlement with Fylde, and in turn we agreed terms with Will.

Unfortunately, the wheels of bureaucracy move slowly in football, and even though we submitted our paperwork before the 5pm Friday deadline, paperwork from other parties wasn’t and after that, we had to wait ages for the FA to approve Will’s contract. It finally came through at 1.30pm on Tuesday, just two hours from the deadline for Tuesday’s game at Scunthorpe.

It’s great to have him back, I’m certain that with his experience of winning the league with Fylde last season, that he will be a huge boost to the team and bring the best out of his teammates.

I’d like to thank everyone for their excellent behaviour at our home game against Curzon Ashton, there were no complaints at all about our fans. We received a complaint about a visiting fan via our text message service, and that was acted upon. Graham Reeves, our safety manager, had a quiet word with the person concerned, and there were no further issues in the second half.

Please continue to use the text message service, texts are picked up by several people and they will do their best to act upon them as soon as they can. Most of all, please keep this standard of good behaviour going, because we are being watched very closely by the FA.

I understand that there was one minor incident at Hereford, which was reported to us after the game, and so we are closely monitoring that situation.

We have now appointed two Supporter Liaison Officers, Andrew Scullion and Rob Duncan, as part of the action plan imposed on us by the FA following the Scarborough incident. One aspect of their roles will be to talk to supporters and emphasise to them how important it is to maintain an acceptable standard of behaviour. They will also be acting as another conduit between the club and our supporters. We are working hard to meet the demands of the action plan, and the pieces are slowly coming together. Next week, we have a meeting scheduled with representatives of Kick It Out to further develop our relationship with them.

In terms of the new ground project, we had a very good informal meeting last week with representatives of the Council, and our main aims, to establish a working relationship and understanding going forward, were achieved. We talked about all sorts regarding the ground and other DFC matters, and now, hopefully, the way forward is much clearer.

One thing they realised, was how important it is for this football club to own its own ground. I talked at length about sustainability, and how important it is for us to generate as much revenue as possible from our assets if we are to run a club that greatly benefits the town and the local community. We are therefore currently working on our proposal to present to the developer and then the Council.

Finally, I would like to welcome our friends from Brackley, and hope they have a safe journey home.