Simon Weatherill remembers a classic away win at Hartlepool on 11^th November 1995 in this week’s Memory Match.

The 1995/96 season promised to be an exciting time for Darlington fans. The club had just appointed David Hodgson and Jim Platt as their “dream team” management duo. One of their first jobs was to sell Adam Reed to Blackburn Rovers in order to balance the books, and to lift a transfer embargo, which the club found itself under. They then set about reshaping the squad for the coming campaign. One of their first signings was Gary Bannister, who joined the club as player coach. They also signed Phil Brumwell, Mark Barnard and Anthony Carss. Hodgson had previously worked as a football agent and he used his contacts to bring in trialists from far and wide. The club kicked off the new season with two Portuguese players in the squad – Pedro Paulo and Rui Neves.

The team didn’t make the anticipated start to the season and only won one of their first ten games, which left them third from bottom in the table at the end of September. Hodgson even put the whole team up for sale after one particularly poor performance at home to Scarborough. October proved to be a good month though with five straight wins that moved the club up into the play-off positions. With their league campaign now firmly back on track, the Quakers could turn their attention to the FA Cup. When the draw for the first round was made Darlington had been paired with local rivals Hartlepool. The game would take place at Victoria Park on November 11th. The clubs had been drawn together six times in the FA Cup and at that moment they were honours even, with three wins each. The latest encounter would enable the winners to have bragging rights over their near neighbours.

Darlington’s recent good form had lifted them to 7th place in the table with 25 points from their 16 games. Hartlepool weren’t having such a good time and sat in 19th place with 18 points, but had a good home record, being unbeaten in eight home games, winning three and drawing five, so a tight, hard fought game was in prospect. The Quakers were forced into making two changes from their team for the match. Left back Mark Barnard was cup tied, having already played in an early qualifying round for Worksop Town. His place went to Phil Brumwell. Striker Glenn Naylor had spent a month on loan with the club from York City. He had returned to York and would be replaced in the team by Steve Gaughan.

On a wet and windy, miserable afternoon, a crowd of 3834 were at Victoria Park for the FA Cup showdown. They saw the home side make the better start, and have the Quakers on the back foot early on. Ex Darlington player Mick Tait should have opened the scoring in the 8th minute when Mike Pollitt failed to collect a cross, and Tait chipped wide of the empty net from 20 yards out. A minute later Stephen Halliday burst between two defenders but fired his shot straight at Pollitt. Pools got the lead that their early play deserved in the 13th minute. A neat flicked ball forward by Halliday found Scott Sloan on the edge of the box and he superbly volleyed first time into the top right hand corner. They very nearly increased their lead two minutes later when a good run by Halliday finished with a thumping drive just wide of the post. Darlington began to find their feet on the difficult surface and equalised on 25 minutes. Steve Gaughan beat the offside trap and raced clear down the right before squaring the ball to the far post where Phil Brumwell slid in and fired the ball home. The Quakers were well on top now and took the lead with an almost carbon copy goal in the 37th minute. This time it was Paul Olsson who made progress down the right, hurdling a challenge from full back Ian McGuckin and crossing to the far post where Gaughan forced the ball home with a close range header, to make the half time score, Hartlepool 1 Darlington 2.

Darlington began the second half as they had finished the first – in total control. They increased their lead in the 59th minute when Gaughan put Robbie Painter through on goal, but Pools keeper Brian Horne made a good save at the striker’s feet. He couldn’t hold the ball though, which ran loose back to Gaughan, who squared the rebound to Gary Bannister, and he lashed the ball into the roof of the net from near the penalty spot. They kept pressing forward and made the game safe five minutes later when Mattie Appleby played a great ball down the right to Painter, who this time made no mistake, cutting inside and drilling home from the corner of the box.

At 4-1 in front the Quakers eased off and allowed Pools back into the game. Halliday scored a well taken goal on 75 minutes, although he looked suspiciously offside when he cut in from the left and fired home off the body of Pollitt. In a spirited finish Pools went close again when Pollitt saved superbly from Sloan and in the ensuing goalmouth scramble Simon Shaw seemed to handle the ball but somehow escaped conceding a penalty. The Quakers had started slowly and finished sloppily but in between they had been devastating and fully deserved their 4-2 win.

The game proved to be Mike Pollitt’s last in a Darlington shirt. Immediately after the game he was sold to Notts County, which lead shortly afterwards to the resignation of David Hodgson, who claimed the transfer was completed behind his back, and he left the club, saying that he was sick of the internal politics and that he’d been misled about the club’s financial position.

Hartlepool produced a 32 page programme for the 95/96 season, priced at £1.30. The programme included two pages of pen pics of Quakers players, a page of “stats and facts” of the season so far, and ten “interesting facts” about the two clubs and their rivalry.

Team v Hartlepool : 1 Mike Pollitt 2 Simon Shaw 3 Phil Brumwell 4 Mattie Appleby 5 Andy Crosby 6 Sean Gregan 7 Gary Himsworth 8 Paul Olsson 9 Robbie Painter 10 Steve Gaughan 11 Gary Bannister Subs 12 Gavin Worboys (not used) 13 Paul Robinson (replaced Gaughan, 80 mins) 14 Anthony Carss (not used).