Simon Weatherill remembers the 5-2 home win over Lincoln City on February 1^st 1997 in the latest of his Memory Match series.

The 1996/97 season had kicked off with Jim Platt at the helm. He had spent the summer rebuilding the squad after the disappointment of losing at Wembley in the previous season’s play-off final and had lost three of his most influential players. Gary Bannister had to retire due to a neck injury, Matty Appleby was sold to Barnsley and Steve Gaughan to Chesterfield. Their places in the squad were taken by new signings Brian Atkinson from Sunderland, Darren Roberts from Chesterfield and Michael Oliver from Stockport County. Platt also signed several youngsters, among them Gary Innes from Sheffield United, Lee Brydon from Liverpool and Russell Kelly from Chelsea.

The new look squad did not start the season well, with only four wins in their first twenty games. Platt received the dreaded vote of confidence from chairman Bernard Lowery after a home defeat by Mansfield in the middle of October. “If Jim Platt goes, I go” stated Lowery defiantly. Four games later, after defeat at Lincoln, Platt was sacked. He left with the club second bottom in the table, with 16 points from 18 games. The club immediately appointed David Hodgson as his successor. Hodgson would be returning to the club after walking out almost exactly a year previously. He brought Bannister back to work as his assistant. One of the new manager’s first jobs was to oversee the transfer of Sean Gregan to Preston for £350,000. Gregan was replaced by Jason De Vos, who was brought in on a free transfer from Canada.

Results didn’t really improve significantly, and so by the time Lincoln City visited Feethams on February 1st, the Quakers were still in an uncomfortable position of third bottom in the table, although they did have an eight point lead over Brighton, who were bottom, occupying the one and only relegation place. The Quakers would go into the game without Brian Atkinson, recovering from an ankle injury, Jason De Vos, with a broken foot, Anthony Carss, with a knee injury and Brian Laws, who had been playing on a week to week contract, but had left the club to join Scunthorpe as player coach. Hodgson bolstered his injury hit squad by signing two new players on loan.

Central defender Richard Hope joined from Blackburn to take De Vos’ place in defence and goalkeeper Teuvo Moilanen was signed from Preston to replace Paul Newell, who was rested after a 6-0 thumping at Fulham. Phil Brumwell and Russell Kelly would both be making rare starts for the team. Lincoln arrived at Feethams placed just outside the play-off positions. They were managed by John Beck and had a reputation for playing a very direct, long ball, percentage based game, which won them few friends outside of Lincoln.

A crowd of 2269 saw the Quakers make a good start to the game, taking control very early on. Simon Shaw was twice unlucky not to open the scoring, first with a raking right foot shot that visiting keeper Barry Richardson saved at full stretch, then with a 25 yard curler that flew just wide of the far post. Robbie Blake then fired just over before the game burst into life with a three goal blast in a five minute spell. Michael Oliver opened the scoring for the Quakers in the 24th minute. Good work down the left by Robbie Blake and Darren Roberts created the space for Oliver to advance into the box and smash his shot into the top corner of the net past the helpless Richardson.

A minute later Oliver turned provider as he broke into the box again, this time squaring the ball back across goal for Russell Kelly to side foot past the keeper from the edge of the box.

Three minutes later it was 3-0, Mark Barnard crossing from the left towards the far post where Darren Roberts volleyed home from eight yards out. Lincoln pushed four men up front in the second half in an attempt to get back into the game, but it was the home side who increased their lead in the 75th minute with a fine individual goal by Roberts. Running into the box to get onto the end of another Oliver pass, he turned Lincoln defender Kevin Austin inside out before crashing his shot past Richardson at the keeper’s near post. Lincoln briefly threatened to get back into the game as the Quakers took their foot off the pedal, and scored two goals in three minutes. On 80 minutes Moilanen got down well to make a save after a free kick, but could only parry the ball to Gareth Ainsworth who fired home from close range, and then three minutes later Ainsworth was on hand again to slot home after Moilanen had completely misjudged a high ball into the box. The Quakers completed the scoring in the 89th minute. Man of the match Oliver broke away down the left and played in Phil Brumwell, who coolly controlled the ball and slotted past Richardson for his first ever league goal for the club. 

The 5-2 victory was Darlington’s third game without defeat and lifted the club to fourth from bottom in the table. The reshaping of the squad continued as the season went on. Prize asset Robbie Blake was sold to Bradford City on transfer deadline day for £300,000, Carl Shutt moving in the opposite direction. Results were never particularly convincing and were just about good enough to keep the club clear of trouble at the foot of the table. They eventually finished in 18th position with 52 points, only 5 points above bottom placed Hereford United. Brighton had saved themselves in the final few weeks of the season and drew at Hereford on the final day, condemning their hosts to relegation to the Conference.

The programme for the 1996/97 season consisted of 32 pages, of which 9 were adverts. It cost £1.50 and was printed by Mawers Talbot Print. Full colour throughout, the front cover was a photo from a previous game. Inside were columns by manager David Hodgson and chairman Bernard Lowery, News Desk, Journalists View, Division 3 Review, two pages on today’s opponents, a page of current season statistics, action photos from a previous game, Encounters (a look at previous matches with our visitors by Frank Tweddle),In The Spotlight (featuring one of the first team squad), Treatment Room and Team News, a supporters club page, Reserve and Youth Team News, results and line-ups for the current season and the team line-ups on the back cover.  

Team v Lincoln : 1 Teuvo Moilanen 2 Simon Shaw 3 Mark Barnard 4 Lee Brydon 5 Andy Crosby 6 Richard Hope 7 Michael Oliver 8 Phil Brumwell 9 Darren Roberts 10 Robbie Blake 11 Russell Kelly Subs 12 Glenn Naylor (replaced Kelly, 52 mins) 13 Gary Twynham (replaced Blake, 80 mins) 14 Daniel Barbara (replaced Brumwell, 90 mins).