2009–10 Darlington F.C. season

Darlington

2009–10 season
Chairman	Raj Singh
Manager	Colin Todd (until 26 September 2009) Steve Staunton (until 21 March 2010) Craig Liddle and Neil Maddison (caretakers, until 1 April) Simon Davey
League Two	24th
FA Cup	First round (eliminated by Barnet)
League Cup	First round (eliminated by Leeds United)
FL Trophy	Second round (eliminated by Leeds United)
Top goalscorer	League: Tadhg Purcell (9) All: Tadhg Purcell (9)
Highest home attendance	2,744 (vs Bradford City, 5 December 2009)
Lowest home attendance	1,296 (vs Aldershot Town, 23 March 2010)
Average home league attendance	1,943

The 2009–10 season is Darlington Football Club's 81st season in the Football League and their 18th consecutive season in the fourth tier of English football, currently called Football League Two. It covers the period from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010.

Background and summary

In February 2009, Darlington went into administration, which meant the Football League deducted 10 points from their total.^[1] The club finished the 2008–09 season in 12th place in League Two, only seven points below the promotion playoff places.^[2]

On 3 May, a charity game was played featuring famous footballer Paul Gascoigne, as well as former players Bernie Slaven and Marco Gabbiadini. This match attracted a crowd of over 3,000 and helped keep the club going.^[3] On 7 May, it was announced that no buyer had been found for the football club.^[4] On 8 May, it was revealed Darlington's administrators Brackenbury Clark and Company had released the "majority of the first-team squad" from their contracts to cut costs, with immediate effect, as well as the club's coaching staff and administrative staff including caretaker manager Martin Gray, leaving Craig Liddle and Neil Maddison as joint temporary caretaker managers.^[5]

On 20 May, former chairman George Houghton returned to the club as owner and chairman and appointed former Middlesbrough boss Colin Todd as manager.^[6] However, he kept the club for sale and on 7 August, the club officially came out of administration and were given permission by the Football League to do so with Raj Singh officially taking over as new chairman of the club. New contracts for players such as Lee Thorpe and Jeff Smith and assistant player manager Dean Windass were sanctioned.^[7] However, on 26 September, Todd left the club after failing to find a win during the first two months of the season.^[8]

He was replaced by former Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton until the end of that season, with new assistant Kevin Richardson.^[9] Staunton brought in new players including Irish trialists St Patrick's Athletic's midfielder Gary Dempsey, former Shamrock Rovers' striker Tadhg Purcell,^[10] teenage defender Simon Madden, a return for former Darlo player Alan White.^[11] Spennymoor Town midfielder Gary Waite and former Hibernian Scottish teenage striker Patrick Deane, also on six-month deals until the end of the season.^[12] And on the day of the winter transfer deadline 1 February about half an hour or so before the actual 5pm deadline it was announced that the club had signed another Irish player who was former Inverness Caledonian Thistle defender Richie Byrne.^[13]

Review

August

On 7 August it was announced that the club had officially come out of administration and were given permission by the Football League to do so with Raj Singh officially taking over owner and chairmanship of the club it was also confirmed that the Singh consortium were confident enough to appoint manager Colin Todd in the interim period, as well as sanctioning contracts for players such as Lee Thorpe and Jeff Smith and assistant player manager Dean Windass.^[7]

September

However, on 26 September it was announced that the club had agreed to let manager Colin Todd resign by mutual consent although Todd was adamant he was sacked and that he didn't agree to anything about resiging by mutual consent whereas the club released a statement saying that they and Todd agreed to let him resign by mutual consent.^[8]

October

On 5 October it was announced that former Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton took over as the new permanent manager until the end of that season as well as bringing in Staunton the club bought in an assistant to him who was former Sunderland coach Kevin Richardson coming in on the same deal as Staunton.^[9]

December

On 2 December it was announced that a contract row had erupted at the club between manager Steve Staunton and captain Steve Foster, because of this Staunton confirmed he would take away Foster's duties as captain, and would not play him again until a clause in his contract was removed, due to the financial issues at the club, that meant they couldn't agree to his terms, whereas Foster felt he had the legitimacy to have a new contract with these terms, because he stuck with the club through and through during its difficult times (the contracts clause was that if Staunton picked Foster to start the next two games which would be his 20th game of that season that he had the right to sign an immediate one-year contract extension on top of his current deal whatever that may be).^[14] So due to this Ian Miller was named as the new skipper replacing Foster for the game at home against Bradford City on 5 December a few days later until the issue had been resolved for Foster to play again, but due to his injury, Mark Bower was named as his replacement for the game as well as vice-captain for the injured Chris Lumsdon a few days later.

January

A month after the reported incident on 4 January 2010, it was announced that former skipper Steve Foster decided that he would remove the clause and terms from his contract as he wanted to resolve his contract issue with and to play for the club again, but he also did this because of the circulating rumours surrounding his position at the club with the winter transfer window that had been open for a few days at that time.^[15] After former captain Steve Foster's comments earlier that week on 7 January, manager Steve Staunton announced that he wanted Foster to play just as much as the former skipper but he would only do so if he took the clause out of his contract, as Staunton didn't want to hold the club out to financial ransom, but even though Foster had remained professional throughout the whole situation, kept himself in good shape and available for selection it would be up to him to remove the clause from his contract to enable him to play again.^[16] On the same day after weeks of speculation the identity of the two League of Ireland trialists Staunton had brought in was revealed and they were former St Patrick's Athletic's midfielder Gary Dempsey and former Shamrock Rovers' striker Tadhg Purcell and it was also announced the club would sign a former player sometime during the next week and he was former captain and midfielder Clark Keltie after he had been training with the club since the trialists had as well after being released from Rochdale and having short loan spells with Chester City and Gateshead it was expected he would sign a six-month deal until the end of the season as the other two new signings did.^[10] Although on 14 January it was announced that at the club arranged Fans Footy Night the night previous, Staunton admitted his frustration at failing to sign Keltie after he agreed that he would sign for the club earlier the next week but instead had a successful trial at Lincoln City which lead to the midfielder making a u-turning decision to opt to sign for them instead but it was all bad news as Staunton also announced another new signing who was another League of Ireland trialist and he was former Leeds United trainee and team mate to Tadhg Purcell at Shamrock Rovers, teenage defender Simon Madden but as well as him Staunton was still interested in another defender who was former vice-captain Alan White after the other club's manager Richard Money told him he was surplus to requirements at Conference National club Luton Town but Staunton also admitted he had talked to the club and their manager about signing the player.^[11] Which he did the next day on 15 January on a six-month loan deal from his parent club.^[17] On the same day it was announced that as well as signing the former defender and vice-captain, he also signed former Spennymoor Town midfielder Gareth Waite and former Hibernian Scottish teenage striker Patrick Dean, also on six-month deals until the end of the season but instead on permanent ones unlike White.^[12] Still on the same day Staunton announced he was interested in signing a goalkeeper and had a number of potential options at his disposal one of which he hoped would signing for the club during the following week.^[18] On 18 January it was announced that the club was annoyed that the game against Aldershot Town a few days previous at the weekend was postponed after two pitch inspections by referee Colin Webster, and a lot of work before and after the calling off of the fixture by groudsman Gary Ventress and his staff, as well as being able to hold a training session on it after the match was deemed unplayable by the referee. What angered the club was the fact that the referee deemed the pitch playable after some of the snow had been cleared from the pitch and surrounding areas, due to help from volunteers, and the thaw of the snow over previous days, at 10am, but called a second inspection at 12noon to see if the conditions would improve, but after the groudstaff had worked on it for an hour until the next inspection, it kept raining so the condition of the pitch deteriorated, so the referee called the game off, but immediately after the inspection it stopped raining, so the groudstaff continued to work on the pitch for a further hour, so groudsman thought the pitch was in good condition, so much so that the club decided to hold a training session on it, which went well, which is what angered the club about the match being postponed in the first place.^[19]

Match results

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League Two

FA Cup

First Round

League Cup

First Round

Football League Trophy

First Round

Second Round

Player details

Source:^[20]

No.	Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		FL Trophy		Total		Discipline
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2	DF	Paul Arnison	17 (1)	1	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	20 (1)	1	4	0
21	DF	Rikki Bains	3 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	3 (2)	0	0	0
26	FW	Corey Barnes	4 (2)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	6 (2)	0	1	0
28	DF	Moses Barnett	4 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	5 (1)	0	0	0
11	MF	James Bennett	3 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	3 (2)	0	0	0
3	DF	Mark Bower	12 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	13 (1)	0	0	0
31	DF	Dan Burn	2 (2)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (2)	0	0	0
33	DF	Richie Byrne	2 (2)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (2)	0	2	0
19	MF	Jamie Chandler	12 (2)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	14 (2)	0	6	1
25	MF	Ross Chisholm	2 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (1)	0	0	0
23	FW	James Collins	5 (2)	2	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	6 (2)	2	3	0
18	MF	Mark Convery	9 (12)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (1)	1	11 (13)	1	0	0
23	FW	Jordan Cook	4 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	4 (1)	0	0	0
22	MF	David Davis	5 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	6 (0)	0	3	0
29	FW	Patrick Deane	0 (10)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (10)	0	0	0
11	MF	Gary Dempsey	24 (0)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	24 (0)	1	3	0
22	MF	Jamie Devitt	5 (1)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	6 (1)	1	2	0
30	FW	Mor Diop	18 (5)	2	0 (1)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	18 (6)	3	3	0
20	FW	David Dowson	6 (4)	1	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	7 (5)	1	0	0
5	DF	Steve Foster	15 (1)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	18 (1)	0	0	0
24	FW	Kevin Gall	9 (1)	2	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	11 (1)	2	1	0
20	DF	Stuart Giddings	22 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	22 (0)	0	3	0
12	MF	Josh Gray	10 (17)	1	0 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	10 (18)	1	2	0
16	MF	Danny Groves	8 (8)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	9 (8)	0	1	0
32	DF	Danny Hall	3 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	3 (0)	0	2	0
33	MF	Paul Harsley	3 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	3 (0)	0	2	0
28	MF	Jonathan Hogg	5 (0)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	5 (0)	1	1	0
25	GK	Russell Hoult	6 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	6 (0)	0	0	0
25	GK	Ashlee Jones	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0	0
33	DF	Tony Kane	4 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	4 (0)	0	1	0
1	GK	David Knight	7 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	9 (0)	0	0	0
13	GK	Nick Liversedge	13 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	15 (0)	0	0	1
8	MF	Chris Lumsdon	2 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	3 (0)	0	0	0
22	DF	Simon Madden	13 (2)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	13 (2)	0	2	0
15	FW	Curtis Main	12 (14)	3	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	12 (17)	3	2	0
25	FW	Jordan Marshall	0 (3)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (3)	0	0	0
27	MF	John McReady	3 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	3 (1)	0	0	0
6	DF	Ian Miller	40 (0)	1	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	43 (0)	1	3	0
19	DF	Andrew Milne	12 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	12 (1)	0	0	0
9	MF	Chris Moore	8 (3)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	8 (3)	0	0	0
24	MF	Nathan Mulligan	10 (6)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	10 (6)	1	3	0
4	DF	Matty Plummer	5 (3)	0	1 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	2 (0)	0	8 (4)	0	0	0
22	MF	Nathan Porritt	4 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	5 (1)	0	0	0
19	FW	Tadhg Purcell	22 (0)	9	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	22 (0)	9	2	0
23	GK	Shane Redmond	19 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	19 (0)	0	1	0
14	MF	Gary Smith	32 (2)	1	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	2 (0)	0	36 (2)	1	5	0
7	MF	Jeff Smith	22 (2)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (1)	0	25 (3)	0	0	0
32	FW	Michael Smith	3 (4)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	3 (4)	1	0	0
29	FW	Simon Thomas	7 (0)	1	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	8 (0)	1	2	0
9	FW	Lee Thorpe	7 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0	1 (0)	1	9 (1)	1	3	0
28	MF	Gareth Waite	14 (0)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	14 (0)	1	2	0
10	FW	Noel Whelan	2 (1)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	2 (1)	0	0	0
4	DF	Alan White	23 (1)	1	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	23 (1)	1	5	0
10	FW	Dean Windass	3 (3)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (1)	0	3 (4)	0	1	0

Transfers

Because the Football League accepted the club's exit from administration only in August 2009, although deals had been agreed with a number of players, who had appeared for the club in pre-season matches, these players were not officially registered for the club until 3 August 2009. These registrations also included those of players whose contracts could not be renewed until the club came out of administration.

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee	Notes
3 August 2009	DF	Paul Arnison	Bradford City	Free	[21]
3 August 2009	MF	James Bennett	Hull City	Free	[21]
3 August 2009	DF	Mark Bower	Bradford City	Free	[21]
3 August 2009	DF	Mark Convery	Newcastle Blue Star	Free	[21]
3 August 2009	DF	Steve Foster		Free	[21]
3 August 2009	GK	David Knight	Mansfield Town	Free	[21]
3 August 2009	GK	Nick Liversedge		Free	[21]
3 August 2009	MF	Chris Lumsdon		Free	[21]
3 August 2009	DF	Ian Miller		Free	[21]
3 August 2009	MF	Matty Plummer		Free	[21]
3 August 2009	MF	Gary Smith		Free	[21]
3 August 2009	MF	Jeff Smith		Free	[21]
3 August 2009	FW	Lee Thorpe		Free	[21]
10 August 2009	DF	Dan Burn		Free	[A][21]
14 August 2009	DF	Rikki Bains		Free	[21]
21 August 2009	FW	Kevin Gall		Free	[22][C]
24 August 2009	FW	Curtis Main		Free	[21]
9 October 2009	FW	Noel Whelan		Free	[23][B]
22 October 2009	FW	Serigne Diop	SE Eivissa-Ibiza		[24]
29 October 2009	GK	Ashlee Jones			[25]
29 October 2009	MF	Nathan Mulligan	Norton & Stockton Ancients		[25]
7 January 2010	MF	Gary Dempsey	St Patrick's Athletic	Free	[26]
7 January 2010	FW	Tadhg Purcell	Shamrock Rovers	Free	[26]
15 January 2010	DF	Simon Madden	Shamrock Rovers	Free	[27]
15 January 2010	MF	Gareth Waite	Spennymoor Town		[27]
15 January 2010	FW	Patrick Deane	Hibernian	Free	[27]
1 February 2010	DF	Richie Byrne		Free	[28]
2 March 2010	MF	Ross Chisholm	Shamrock Rovers	Free	[29]
11 March 2010	MF	Chris Moore	Whitley Bay		[30]

A. ^ Registered as scholar.

B. ^ Signed on non-contract terms.

C. ^ Signed on monthly contract.

Out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Fee	Notes
22 October 2009	FW	Kevin Gall	York City	Contract expired	[31]
9 December 2009	GK	David Knight	Histon	Mutual consent	[32][33]
9 December 2009	MF	James Bennett	Ossett Town	Mutual consent	[32][34]
9 December 2009	DF	Matty Plummer	North Ferriby United	Mutual consent	[32][35]
16 February 2010	GK	Ashlee Jones		Mutual consent	[36]
27 February 2010	DF	Steve Foster	Blyth Spartans	Mutual consent	[36][37]
27 February 2010	FW	Lee Thorpe	Fleetwood Town	Mutual consent	[36][37]
19 March 2010	MF	Jeff Smith		Contract cancelled	[38]
5 April 2010	FW	Noel Whelan		Released	[39]
12 April 2010	MF	Ross Chisholm		Released	[40]
12 April 2010	FW	Patrick Deane		Released	[40]

Loans in

Date	Pos	Name	From	Length	Notes
7 August 2009	MF	Jamie Chandler	Sunderland	Three months	[41]
7 August 2009	FW	David Dowson	Sunderland	Three months	[41]
17 August 2009	MF	Nathan Porritt	Middlesbrough	One month	[42]
18 August 2009	FW	Jordan Cook	Sunderland	Six months	[43][A]
15 September 2009	MF	Jamie Devitt	Hull City	One month	[44]
16 September 2009	GK	Russell Hoult	Notts County	One month	[45]
17 September 2009	DF	Tony Kane	Carlisle United	One month	[46]
9 October 2009	DF	Moses Barnett	Everton	One month	[47]
16 October 2009	FW	Simon Thomas	Crystal Palace	Three months	[48]
22 October 2009	FW	James Collins	Aston Villa	Three months	[24]
22 October 2009	MF	David Davis	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Two months	[24]
19 November 2009	MF	Jonathan Hogg	Aston Villa	Six weeks	[49]
26 November 2009	DF	Andrew Milne	Leeds United	Six weeks	[50][51]
26 November 2009	MF	Paul Harsley	Chesterfield	Six weeks	[52]
26 November 2009	DF	Danny Hall	Chesterfield	Six weeks	[53]
15 January 2010	DF	Alan White	Luton Town	Season	[54]
26 January 2010	GK	Shane Redmond	Nottingham Forest	One month	[55]
5 March 2010	DF	Andrew Milne	Leeds United	Season	[56]

A. Cook's loan was arranged for six months, but was terminated early following a serious injury.^[57]

Loans out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Length	Notes
6 November 2009	DF	Rikki Bains	Blyth Spartans	Two months	[58][59]
15 January 2010	DF	Rikki Bains	Gateshead	End of season	[60]
29 January 2010	MF	Dan Riley	Billingham Town	One month	[28]

See also

• 2009–10 in English football

References