In the second of two parts, Andrew Matthews recalls the promotion season of 1990-91

In December we had a game against Grimsby Town in the Leyland Daf Cup.  Nothing to enthrall fans and only 1106 turned up that night.  However everyone that did attend witnessed one of the most bizarre incidents to be seen at Feethams.   Two Grimsby players decided to have a brawl and exchanged punches with each other.  They were nowhere near the ‘football’ action and decided on their own ‘actions’ instead. Never the less, the referee was not impressed and sent them both off.  Darlo were now up against 9 men and went on to win 3-1.

We had two corking wins over Cardiff and Carlisle at home.  It was the first time that I actually thought that we might just have back to back promotions.

Shortly after we had a home game against Gillingham.  We drew 1-1 and I remember how incensed I was at the referee that day.  Nothing against Gillingham at all. It was all down to Tom Fitzharris and the sending off of two Darlo players.  We have games like this now and again.  We go to watch football, however come away talking about the referee’s performance instead.  However it was one of the Darlo fans’ performance that will ‘strike home’ with Tom Fitzharris.  He was hit on the head by an apple core, thrown from the East stand.  Not something I condone at all, however it was comical the way the ref went down to the ground.   Maybe someone should have had a word with the ref about ‘simulation’?

At the beginning of February we had an away game at York City.  Now York was not a happy hunting ground for me.  I had been to see Darlo play at Bootham Crescent six times previously and we had lost them all, including a 1-0 reverse in the FA Cup earlier in the season.  In fact I had seen a 5-2, a 2-0, a 7-0, a 3-1, a 4-1 and a 1-0 defeat in the previous seasons.  We had scored 4 goals and conceded 22!

This particular Saturday was a different story.  John Borthwick scored and we won 1-0.  I recall that Nigel Pepper was sent off for York, again.  He always seemed to see ‘red’ against us.   Finally seeing a win against York City gave me the feeling that this really was going to be a promotion season.   What is even more remarkable is that I have seen Darlo play a further seven games at Bootham Crescent over the years and I have not seen another win.  A total of 14 games and only one win.  Certainly MY bogey ground as a Darlo fan is concerned.

At the end of February we had the ‘big one’.  Away to Hartlepool.  The crowd that day was 6,100.  A massive crowd for Hartlepool as they traditionally had lower crowds than us in those days.   This was one of those days that we were pleased to get the game over with.   Hartlepool were all over us and Mark Prudhoe had a ‘career’ day.  Nothing was getting past him and the point we got in the 0-0 draw was all due to Mark Prudhoe’s performance.  I remember how mightily relieved I was at the final whistle.

Another game I particularly remember is the away game at Cardiff City in early April.  I travelled on the supporters’ bus to this one.  I was on my own as my mates couldn’t make it.   Cardiff is never one of the ‘friendliest’ places to be a visiting fan and I certainly felt intimidated before and during the game.  The Darlo fans were placed in a seated area to the right of the main stand and I just concentrated on the game in front of me. 

The game itself was not a classic, however I just felt that if we could get one, then it would be three points, as Cardiff didn’t seem to offer too much.   The winning goal for Darlo came from Neil Matthews with a lovely lob over his own keeper. (Don’t know why I remember this player’s name after all these years!!!)

I travelled to Scunthorpe for our last away game of the season.  Ironically it was where I was when we lost our league place two seasons earlier. A day that will live with me forever.  Tears at losing our league status were seen across the terraces.  I remember in the car back home, not one of us uttered a word till we were well on our way up the A1.  I recall that Five Live went straight to Scunthorpe to interview Brian Little, before they put any First Division reviews on.  A Football League club being relegated to the Conference was big news those days as we were only the second team to go, after Lincoln City.  

This time we would be promoted at Scunthorpe instead of being relegated, or so I thought. However it was not to be and Glanford Park was again a place NOT to be.  We lost 2-1 and it meant that we had to go into our last game knowing that a win would take us up.

So it came to the last game of the season.  Rochdale were our visitors.  I remember it being a very sunny day.  The crowd was amazing.  You just couldn’t get around.  There were three of us at the game, however we lost Gary in the crowd and didn’t see him again until after the game finished.  Myself and Dave ended up in the old West Stand.  This was not our usual spot at all.  I think I have only watched a handful of games from that stand in all my years at Feethams.  Anyway, we got ourselves settled and had a good view of the game.

Our nerves for the game were soon eased when David Cork (my favourite player at that time) scored an early goal.  We were on our way to the title!

We had to wait till the second half for the nerves to finally disappear.  I can still see Frank Gray stepping up to take that penalty to ensure those three precious points.

 I will never forget how half the stands emptied onto the perimeter of the pitch, awaiting the final whistle.  When the whistle did finally go, mass celebrations started.  I waited for the whistle before I made my way onto the pitch and joined in the celebratory singing as we had not just gained promotion, but achieved back to back titles.  The strange thing was that if we got beat that day, we might not have gone up at all – it was that tight till the end.

I had attended 27 home and 13 away league and cup games that season.  It was a season with some great players and some great football being played.   The biggest cheer of the whole season was when Brian Little lifted the Fourth Division Championship trophy at the end of the Rochdale game.  I knew it would be his last game in charge.  There were too many rumours going about, about where Brian was going next season.  He was hot property and I knew we had seen one of the greatest managers Darlo had ever seen, achieving what most Darlo fans had only dreamed of.  Finally it was happening to us.  We were winning Championships.

Oh the memories!!!!!