Lifelong Darlington fan Paul Hodgson has written a book about his life supporting Darlington FC, and he's kindly allowed us to publish it on the website.

Here are the previous chapters:

https://darlingtonfc.co.uk/news/when-push-comes-to-shove-3

Here's Chapter Four, covering October 1998.

We were now into the month of October and our first game was against Swansea City at Feethams. As usual, I met Mike, Ian and Steve Keeney in the Dalesman. When I greeted Mike with a high-pitched cry of “Odd-job” (after the bald-headed Japanese villain in the Bond film Goldfinger) he responded in kind by referring to me as Davros (the creator of the Daleks in Doctor Who). 

I should explain that Mike and I regularly trade insults with each other, and the tit-for-tat exchanges between us never cease to put a smile on both our faces.

 During our conversation, Steve chipped in to remind Mike that he still owed him ten pounds for some old Darlo programmes that he’d sold him.  Since Mike had taken his time to pay up, Ian and I started to take the mickey out of him for being a tight git, so he handed over the cash there and then.

    By the time the four of us left the pub I was rather bleary-eyed and already slurring my words, having consumed several pints. 

We made our way to the Centre Spot, which was very hot, due to faulty air conditioning, so after two pints the four of us left and went our separate ways to watch the match, Ian and Steve to their seats in the East Stand, leaving Mike and I to go in the pitch-side disabled area.

 The atmosphere in the ground was quite subdued, considering our league position. The Swansea City fans, by contrast, were much more boisterous.

Former Darlo striker and record signing, Nick Cusack, was in the Swansea team that day.  He had played for Darlo for less than a season following his move from Motherwell for £95,000 in 1991.

Despite the odd atmosphere Darlo played well in patches and earned a 2-2 draw with goals from man of the match, Adam Reed, and former Leeds and Sheffield United striker Carl Shutt, two minutes into injury time .

Speaking of Adam Reed, it was good to see him wearing a Darlo shirt again, having been sold to Blackburn Rovers for £200,000 three years previously. Unfortunately, he never made the first team at Ewood Park and after being farmed out to both Rochdale and Darlo on loan, as mentioned earlier, he returned to Feethams on a free transfer – good business on the part of David Hodgson if you ask me!

After the game, Mike and I returned to the Centre Spot to pay for the use of the Executive Box for the next home match against Peterborough.  We each gave Richard Jones £30 as he had kindly volunteered to collect everybody’s money in order to pay the Football Club. He also pointed out the dress code for the day – apparently, no trainers or jeans were permitted in the boxes.

Before leaving the bar, I had a word with Darren Roberts, our centre forward, who said that he was unsettled in the area but would give one hundred per cent to the club while he was here – interesting comments, I thought.

 Well, our big day had arrived, the day that we were about to watch a match for the first time from an executive box. I entered the Dalesman at about eleven o’clock and almost failed to recognise Mike, John Gray and Richard Jones, who were sporting suits. Not to be outdone, I too wore a shirt and tie. 

     We had a drink and Richard gave Mike and I our match tickets and six beer tokens each. We then headed straight for the ground, as the kick-off had been brought forward because of the England International against Sweden.

On our arrival at the East Stand, we each received a complimentary match programme and a steward fixed a coloured label to our lapels before we went up in the lift. An official then checked our tickets and showed us to Executive Box number two.         

                 It was quite cramped in there, what with my wheel-chair plus a large table and chairs. Looking around, I could also see a fridge complete with drinks in a corner, a portable colour television and a telephone. It wasn’t long before more people started to arrive.

 Because of the early kick-off, the catering arrangements had been thrown into disarray and the expected buffet didn’t materialise, being replaced instead by lukewarm cream of cauliflower soup and a cold bacon sandwich. John greedily ate my soup – as well as his own. In my humble opinion, it could only be described as unappetising. John, however, seemed to enjoy it!

 A steward served us coffee at half time. The man then proceeded to do a stock-take on the contents of the fridge and promptly locked it, without saying so much as a word to anyone.  If his expression was anything to go by, maybe he thought we were going to break into it after he had left! However, when Richard Jones lifted the lid on the empty Pimms ice bucket he found, to his horror, black mould growing inside it!

Anyway, back to the match. Darlo won the game 3-0 with goals from Glenn Naylor (2) and another from centre-half Adam Reed. It certainly was an enthralling game to watch and the win sent us back to the top of the league.

Earlier in the week, rumours had circulated to the effect that Jason De Vos, our Canadian International centre-half, who had joined us from Canadian side Montreal Impact for a small fee a year earlier, was about to be sold to ease the club’s burden of debt. In fact, after the game, he went over to the fans on the South Terrace, Tin Shed and East Stand to applaud them. This was clearly a farewell gesture on his part.

Despite the symbolic significance of this act, Mike Peden later assured me that the sale wasn’t finalised and that he was seeking a refinancing deal to avoid having to sell him. Unfortunately, this never transpired and he was sold later that week to Dundee United for £500,000, the highest ever transfer fee received for a Darlo player.

Upon leaving the ground, I wondered whether the club might not be as financially secure as we’d been led to believe. 

    Our next game was away to Rotherham United. Mike and I caught the half-past nine train to Doncaster. When it arrived, a station official unfolded the collapsible ramp for my wheelchair. On leaving us, he said that he would fax Doncaster station to arrange assistance to get us off the train.

    Once on board, we met an old man who lived round the corner from me. He was called Ray Cox and he’d supported Darlo for sixty-two years. He was at the Brentford game where he was hit in the face by the ball and his glasses were broken, as a result of which he was taken to hospital. He said that he was hoping to get some compensation from Brentford Football Club.

    Ray said that he originated from Normanton near Wakefield. He knew my late mother who also hailed from Normanton. Ray stated that he had seen her at the bingo in Darlington and got the impression that she was an avid reader, as she always had a library book in her bag, so I told him about Flipper’s Side.

On arrival at Doncaster, a station official called Eddie Lacey helped us to board the Rotherham-bound train. I can remember singing the Clive Dunn song “Granddad” while Mike was pushing me along behind Eddie, who looked seventy at least!

On the Rotherham train we bumped into Pete Foster, a Darlo fan of many years standing, who very kindly gave me a can of lager, which I finished off in record time. He was going to the match with two other lads that I knew by sight.

 Before leaving the station, we checked the train times back to Doncaster, and with the precision of Eric Bristow, the former world champion darts player, Mike inscribed them in his little red notebook.

On the way out of the station, we bumped into Ray again, who said that he was going for a half over the road in the Phoenix. He then gave us directions to the ground and set off on his own.

The first pub Mike and I tried was called Nellie Deanes, but unfortunately it was shut. Undeterred, we headed for the County Borough instead where we bumped into John Gray and Richard Jones.

 The talk in the bar was of the spat between Mike Peden and the Cricket Club chairman, Brian Johnson. Richard had spoken to Mike Amos, a journalist from The Northern Echo about the affair, which was apparently watered down in the local press. 

The article by Mike Amos, which I later read, stated that Johnson and Peden had a public slanging match. The argument was about access to Feethams, as mentioned earlier in this book. Johnson had all the gates locked and had parked his car across the private access road at the boundary between the Cricket and Football Clubs.  The article stated that Peden instructed a Football Club official to unlock the gates, whereupon Johnson then blocked his path. Peden, the article stated, “Put a hand on him but offered no verbal threats.”  Johnson then threatened to ring the police. Eventually a truce was called between the two combatants and the gates were re-opened. 

Within half an hour the group of us were on our travels again, John and Richard electing to tag along with Mike and me. We walked up the hill to the town centre and to our amazement saw some Christmas decorations hanging in the main street – we just shook our heads as we passed them by.  It was October for God’s sake!

  Our next stop was Yates’ Wine Lodge where we each had a meal (fish and chips for me). Then we moved on to the Moulder’s Rest where we saw Roger Martin and Carl Alexander. In addition, there was Steve Harland, the editor of Mission Impossible, a now defunct Darlington fanzine, and the ubiquitous Neil Johnson from DAFTS.

 After a few pints, the four of us moved on to another pub called the Queens on the other side of the road, and finally on to the Millmoor Hotel, where we bumped into Robbo (David Robinson).  By then the rain was bucketing down and as I entered the pub I noticed that my bag was missing from the back of my chair so I sent Mike on a scouting mission to recover it. As a result he got soaking wet, but his efforts were to no avail as John Gray found it instead!

At a quarter to three we headed for the ground and to my dismay there were no programmes to be had anywhere.

About five hundred Darlo fans had made the trip to Millmoor. They were fortunate enough to witness an exciting game, spoilt only by referee Eddie Lomas.

Dariuz Kubicki, the ex-Aston Villa and Polish International, made his debut for us at full back and was on the receiving end of a horrendous tackle after only fourteen minutes that surely merited a red card. However, the referee decided to award a yellow card instead and the culprit, Paul Dillon, remained on the field.

 To add insult to injury, the same player later controlled the ball with his hand and scored Rotherham’s equaliser after we had netted first through Carl Shutt. Lomas then went on to award Rotherham two penalties and we ended up losing 3-1.

To my relief, as we left the ground, I managed to purchase a programme from a Darlo fan who had one spare.  As mentioned in my last book, Flippers Side, I am an avid collector and now have well over 2,800 Darlo programmes.

On arrival at Rotherham station, Mike and I learned that the train to Goole would be delayed because of signalling problems and then another was held up because of a driver shortage and so we had to wait in the icy wind that was blasting the platform.

We were expecting the five thirty-five train, but it didn’t arrive until six o’clock. Whilst we were waiting, a couple of Rotherham fans decided that it would be fun to abuse us by chanting, “You’re not very good” to the tune of “Knees up mother Brown.” This carried on even when we were on the train.

To my utter gratification, one of the Rotherham fans who had been making an arse of himself on the platform missed his stop and had to remain on the train until the next station. 

We changed trains at Goole for Doncaster. Once there, we decided to go for some food and drinks. Unfortunately, we ended up in what can only be described as one of the worst branches of McDonalds in the world. There was a long queue for food and no milk to go in our coffee.

After we had somewhat reluctantly consumed our food, we went for a few bevies in the Paris Gate. The loud music, however, made our stay a brief one.

 The next pub we frequented was the Tut n Shive. Due to the time of year, some people were wearing Halloween costumes and masks.  The Grim Reaper was standing there with his plastic scythe propped against the bar, supping a pint. We hoped he would not be an omen after our disappointing defeat.

Despite the presence of the Grim Reaper, we found the Tut n Shive to be a much better pub than the Paris Gate with a superior atmosphere. We therefore stayed there for some time and consumed several pints before heading back to the railway station.

We caught a train back to Darlington at about a quarter to nine. Before boarding, I couldn’t resist another pint in the station bar and to my astonishment Mike bought himself a veggie burger from the buffet. After the crap burger he’d consumed in McDonalds I just couldn’t believe it.

 Once on the train, I purchased three more cans of lager. Then as Mike snored his head off, I drank them whilst reading my programme.

 When we arrived at Darlington station I woke Mike up. He asked me if he’d been asleep long and I replied that he’d been out cold since Doncaster!

We decided to end the evening with a nightcap and chose the Dalesman from where we also ordered a taxi for half past eleven. I had two bottles of Bud, before heading home in the cab.  Once in bed, I reflected that I’d enjoyed the day, if not the result.

After the Rotherham game we had another away match – this time at Torquay United. (Despite Steve Tutill’s dismissal on seventy-five minutes, we managed a creditable 2-2 draw with goals courtesy of Marco Gabbiadini and Brian Atkinson.)

 Unfortunately, due to severe spasm attacks, which affect me every so often and cause a great deal of discomfort, I was unable to attend this midweek game. It was taking me all my time just to get to work, never mind completing a six hundred mile round trip.

Whilst listening to radio commentary on the game, Mike rang to tell me that he had some news regarding Flipper’s Side and that he was coming round straight away. On his arrival, he showed me a letter that he had received that day from Hamilton and Co.

It said that although they thought our book was interesting, it was not something that they felt able to take on at that moment in time. They then stressed commercial viability and prohibitively high costs as the two main reasons for rejecting it. However, they did say that they would be happy to look at other examples of our work at a later stage.

As we had been given an indication back in September that Flipper’s Side might indeed be published, we were quite disappointed to hear this news, but both of us vowed to either try different publishers or if that failed to stump up the cash ourselves in order to have it self-published.

 With the benefit of hindsight, Hamilton and Co. did us a favour by rejecting the book, as they made us even more determined to succeed. Therefore, in the weeks that followed, and after many discussions, we decided to try and obtain sponsorship so that we could publish the book ourselves. If we were successful, it would give us more control over the whole project.

Our next fixture was due to be Exeter City at home. However, after heavy overnight rain, the match was called off early on the Saturday morning because of a waterlogged pitch. The Northern Echo reported that the club would be starting work on drainage repairs later in the week, despite the fact that new drains had been installed during the summer. Somewhat ominously, the Echo went on to say that, “If the problem isn’t solved the club could face further postponements later in the season.”

For the last match in October we had yet another away fixture, this time at Southend United.

I went there with Ian on the Supporters’ Club coach, which left Park Place at about eight in the morning and we arrived at our destination at half past twelve. When we got to Southend John Gray, Richard Jones and John Wilson were waiting for us at the ground as they had come by train instead.

Ian knew someone called Sid in the Colburn Lodge pub near Catterick whose daughter was working as a barmaid in a pub in Southend. Therefore, when he mentioned this to me in conversation, he decided on the spur of the moment to find the Britannia pub where the girl worked. “I promised Sid,” he said to justify this.

However, the other three lads decided against joining us on our trek because it was raining rather heavily and they thought we were foolhardy for embarking on such a wild goose chase without actually having any idea where the pub was situated.

I should explain that at times Ian can be very obstinate and single-minded (just like me) so I just went along with his idea, even though it was still chucking it down with rain. Secretly, though, I suspected that locating Sid’s daughter was going to be about as difficult as finding Sid, the mythical guy from the British Gas privatisation adverts from many years ago!

Eventually, after searching high and low, we found the right pub on the Esplanade, not far from the pier. We were both wringing wet by this time and the barmaid took sympathy on our plight and offered us a towel to dry our hair. However, she explained that Sid’s daughter wasn’t there, so in other words we had nothing to show for our efforts, apart from soaking wet clothes!

Exhausted from traipsing about the town centre, we didn’t even have time for a drink in the pub before we booked a taxi back to Roots Hall where our journey had begun.

 After all the rain that had fallen, the pitch was in a terrible state, almost reminiscent of Feethams! However, the Shrimpers adapted to the surface water better than we did, winning the game 2-1, with our only goal coming from Darren Roberts. It was a very disappointing performance and we were both glad to get back on board the coach for our long journey home.

 On reflection, at the end of the month, Mike and I both agreed that five points out of a possible fifteen wasn’t good enough and indeed Darlo had started to slide down the league at an alarming rate.