Simon Weatherill continues his Memory Match series with the League Cup third round tie against Portsmouth in October 1967

Darlington’s best ever run in the Football League Cup came in the 1967/68 season. It began quietly enough with a 1-0 home win over York City at the end of August with a Bryan Conlon goal. The second round draw gave the Quakers the long trip to Essex to play Southend, but they returned victorious 2-1, thanks to goals by Denis Fidler and Bryan Conlon. The third round draw gave Darlington a home tie against Portsmouth, at that time in Division Two. The game would take place at Feethams on Wednesday, October 11th.

The opening weeks of the 67/68 season had not been good for the Quakers, especially at Feethams. The five home games so far had yet to supply a victory, only three draws and two defeats. Away from home was slightly better, as they’d secured two victories, at Lincoln and Port Vale, plus two draws that had kept the Quakers away from the foot of the Division Four table. After a particularly poor display in the 2-0 home defeat by Barnsley, Darlington sat in 17th place in the table, with nine points. Their cup opponents Portsmouth, were riding high in Division Two and had only suffered one defeat so far, so would provide the home side with a tough examination. As well as poor home form, Quakers manager Jimmy Greenhalgh had injury problems to contend with before he could select his side to take on Pompey. Goalkeeper Tony Moor had missed the Barnsley game with a shoulder injury and failed a fitness test before the cup tie, so 18 year old John Hope would again deputise. Centre half Joe Jacques would also miss the game. He’d strained his thigh against Barnsley and it had failed to respond to treatment so his place would be taken by Trevor Atkinson. In one other change, Alan Sproates was brought into the team at inside right, in place of Bobby Cummings, who dropped to the bench.

The poor home form had badly affected the confidence of supporters and a disappointing crowd of only 6,192 turned out for the Portsmouth game. The ones that stayed away missed an absolute treat. The first half produced plenty of excitement, but no goals. The Northern Echo described it as “45 minutes of sparkling aperitif. Both sides could have taken the lead in a half of thrilling cut and thrust, but neither deserved to go ahead.”

The second half started with a bang as the Quakers took the lead only two minutes after the break. Denis Fidler produced a good run down the right wing, cut in towards goal past full back George Ley, and found Les O’Neill on the edge of the box. The diminutive inside forward swivelled and hit a lobbed shot towards goal that completely deceived visiting keeper Ray Potter, and dropped into the net. Portsmouth hit straight back and John Hope was called into action to save brilliantly from Ray Pointer from close range. Back to the other end and the Quakers scored a second goal on 57 minutes. Don Ratcliffe, who measured a stream of accurate passes to his forwards throughout the game, played another one to Harry Kirk on the left wing. He beat his full back and crossed into the middle and in the ensuing goalmouth scramble Bryan Conlon, playing his best game of the season, forced the ball home. Again Portsmouth hit back and John McClelland put the ball in the Quakers net, but it was disallowed for a marginal offside. Determined not to let the visitors back into the game, the Quakers surged forward again and were awarded a 69th minute penalty when Harry Harris handled in the area. Don Ratcliffe made no mistake from the spot, driving the ball hard and low to the keeper’s right. Pompey scored the goal that their play had deserved when centre forward Ray Hiron pulled a goal back, but the home side hit straight back with a fourth goal on 84 minutes, when Conlon scored his second of the night with a header from a Fidler free kick. The winning margin could have been even greater as in the closing stages Fidler hit the bar and Conlon very nearly completed his hat trick, but his effort was just wide.

The Quakers reward for their spectacular 4-1 victory was a fourth round tie at home to Millwall, who were beaten 2-0 in front of a crowd of 7,732, with goals by O’Neill and Conlon. This put the Quakers into the quarter finals, where they drew Brian Clough’s Derby County, away from home. The Quakers put on a magnificent performance in the Baseball Ground mud. They led 1-0 at half time through Les O’Neill. They were then hit by three Derby goals in three minutes early in the second half, quickly pulled it back to 3-2 through Bobby Cummings, but then conceded two more goals to trail 5-2. Darlington refused to lie down and stormed back with late goals by Don Ratcliffe and Joe Jacques but just couldn’t quite find an equaliser. The cup run had come to an end with an incredible 5-4 defeat, with an amazing eight goals being scored in the second half.

The programme for the 67/68 season consisted of 16 pages and cost 6d. The front cover showed a drawing of two players competing for the ball and was printed in a variety of colours including blue, pink, white or yellow. Inside were Programme Notes (with news of what was happening around the club), an action photo from a previous game, team line-ups, half time scoreboard, Star Spot (profiling one of the players), fixtures, results and tables from first and reserve teams, and pen pictures of our opponents.

Team v Portsmouth : 1 John Hope 2 John Peverell 3 Neville Chapman 4 Ian Davidson 5 Trevor Atkinson 6 Don Ratcliffe 7 Denis Fidler 8 Alan Sproates 9 Bryan Conlon 10 Les O’Neill 11 Harry Kirk Sub Bobby Cummings (not used).