Gavin Ellis, the Darlo poet, presents some prose on last season. He looks back at games against Gainsborough, Telford and Leamington

HOLY TRINITY

Our opponents in the Trophy have history next to none

An actual Football League club prior to World War One

They’re known as Gainsborough Trinity and play in shirts of blue

Their manager Curtis Woodhouse is a champion boxer, too

Our new loanee from Scunthorpe gives Darlington the lead

Jack Lambert scores the goal the game did badly need

Our opponents, one division down, silence the Blackwell ground

When Elliott saves a random shot and they slam in the rebound

We hit the woodwork once or twice, have shots cleared off the line

Then Donawa hits the winner just in the nick of time

Then Thompson’s through, is this his hundredth goal the Tin Shed holds its breath

He sadly falls losing control as the game reaches its death

WE NEED TO BUCK UP

We take on AFC Telford, also known as The Bucks

Alun Armstrong goes berserk as this performance sucks

We started off so brightly chasing after glory

Quickly going one-nil up, a goal from Alex Storey

When Justin Donawa scored again to put us two goals clear

We thought the game was in the bag, those three points seemed so near

They say two-nil in football is a dangerous lead to hold

The second half gets underway and soon we’re caught stone cold

Just ninety seconds on the clock the game’s back to two-one

Then Dinanga slams home once again, our concentration’s gone

Then Dinanga seals his hat-trick with the last kick of the game

From two-nil up to three-two down we hang our heads in shame

BRAKES ON

We travel down to Leamington on a cold December night

We can hear Robins singing in the artificial light

Whenever Darlo travel south to play a midweek game

Traffic always holds us up, today is just the same

With some Darlo players working and no-one here by car

Supporters sup some pre-match drinks in a very empty bar

The Brakes still have their backs up as we knocked them out the cup

They soon lob over Elliott to quickly go one up

A second half disaster, we concede number two

But did the whole ball cross the line, our lapse defenders stew

Leamington win the game three-nil in our worst game of the season

A hectic run and long trip south are given as the reason