In this week’s Memory Match, Simon Weatherill looks back to the 4-4 draw with Rochdale on 28^th October 1980.

The 1980/81 season kicked off with Billy Elliott in his second year as Darlington manager, promising to do things differently. The club had finished the previous season in the bottom four re-election places and Elliott reacted by releasing eleven players, including regulars Clive Nattress, Jimmy Cochrane, Derek Craig and Phil Owers amongst others. He decided that from now on Darlington would rely on a much smaller, younger playing staff. He named Donald Ball as club captain who at the age of 18 became the youngest captain in the Football League. Elliott also scrapped the reserve team and replaced it with a new youth team under the stewardship of former Sunderland defender Ritchie Pitt. The team (which included Fred Barber and Brian Honour) would compete in the Northern Intermediate League.

Only four new signings were made before the season kicked off. Goalkeeper Pat Cuff was signed from Millwall, full back Alan Kamara from York City, central defender Peter Skipper from Hull City and midfielder David Speedie was brought in from Barnsley. The Quakers kicked off the new campaign with one of the youngest sides in the club’s history. A month into the new season Elliott added left back Harry Wilson from Preston, but that still only brought his first team squad up to fourteen players. Members of the youth team would back them up as and when required.

The team struggled to find any kind of consistency in the early weeks of the season and by the time Rochdale visited Feethams on October 28 they sat in 21st place in the Division 4 table with 13 points from 16 games. Their opponents sat in 13th place but in a very tight division, were only two points better off. The Quakers had injury problems for the game. Keeper Pat Cuff had a long-standing back problem and Barry Siddall had been signed on a month’s loan from Sunderland to provide cover. Donald Ball and Harry Wilson had both picked up injuries in the previous game, a 0-2 home defeat to league leaders Southend United, so they would both miss the visit of ‘Dale. Dave McLean would drop to left back to replace Wilson, and Dave Hawker and Harry Charlton came into the side to bolster the midfield. With the squad stretched to the limit, youth team player Barry Stell would be on the substitutes bench. Rochdale were managed by Peter Madden who had been the Quakers boss up until two years previously and would include ex-Quaker Dennis Wann in their side.

A crowd of 1579, the lowest of the season so far, were at Feethams for the Tuesday night encounter. They saw the visitors make a determined start to the game and completely dominate the opening exchanges. Prompted by ex-Quaker winger Dennis Wann, keen to impress against his old club, Rochdale forced seven corners in the first 15 minutes and regularly tore huge holes in Darlington’s fragile defence, who were probably distracted by the garish red and green striped kit that the visitors turned out in. Rochdale were two goals up after ten minutes through Brian Taylor and Dave Esser and it looked like it was going to be a long night for the Feethams faithful. The Quakers fought back though and pulled a goal back midway through the half when David Speedie was tripped in the box by Wann and Dave McLean stroked home the penalty. It was a much more even contest now and the home side equalised just before the break when Alan Walsh fired in a powerful long range shot that was parried by ‘Dale keeper Graeme Crawford. Speedie was the first to react and slotted home the rebound for his first goal for the club. Half time: Darlington 2 Rochdale 2.

The Quakers began the second half on top and the turnaround was complete when they scored a third goal on 48 minutes. A Harry Charlton corner was scrambled clear by the Rochdale defence but unfortunately for them the ball fell perfectly for Walsh, who smashed a 25 yarder through the crowded goalmouth and into the net with Crawford helpless. The entertainment continued and the visitors drew level with a spectacular free kick from right back Alan Jones, who matched Walsh’s power from 20 yards out and it was Barry Siddall’s turn to look on helplessly. Within a minute Darlington were back in front after a clumsy tackle by Peter Burke brought down McLean in the box and he picked himself up to confidently convert his second penalty of the evening. The Quakers couldn’t hold on though and Rochdale escaped with a point when they equalised again with virtually the last kick of the game. A corner led to a crazy goalmouth scramble which ended with Barry Wellings forcing the ball over the line from close range.

The sparse crowd certainly couldn’t complain about a lack of entertainment from the 4-4 draw, which had been played out on an absolute mud bath of a pitch. It saw the Quakers embark on a run of two defeats in fourteen games which lifted them into 9th place in the table by the end of January. They spent the rest of the season just out of reach of the promotion race, comfortably in the top half of the table, but never really threatening the top four. They eventually finished the season in a creditable 8th place with 49 points, 6 points behind fourth place. The much improved season was due in no small part to the potent strike force of John Stalker and Alan Walsh, who managed 40 goals between them throughout the season. Walsh finished with 23 goals and Stalker with 17.

The programme for the 80/81 season consisted of 16 pages and cost 20p for the first half of the season, later rising to 25p. Regular features were Billy Elliott’s column, club secretary’s notes by Dave Thorne, two pages introducing the visitors, a profile page on a different player each week, numerous photos from previous games, results and statistics for the first and youth teams and the team line-ups. Frank Tweddle also wrote a column about previous encounters with the opponents and a review of what was happening elsewhere in Division Four. He also contributed an interesting occasional item entitled Looking Back, covering a piece of Darlington history.

Team v Rochdale: 1 Barry Siddall 2 Alan Kamara 3 Dave McLean 4 Kevan Smith 5 Peter Skipper 6 David Speedie 7 Dave Hawker 8 Harry Charlton 9 John Stalker 10 Ian Hamilton 11 Alan Walsh Sub Barry Stell (not used).