Promoted as Champions – Great Story

‘ Promoted as Champions – Great Story ‘

By Carl Curtis

http://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=171737

Darlington 1883 are promoted tonight from the Northern Premier Division, their third promotion in four years.

They have beaten Whitby away 7-1 tonight and an attendance of 1,804, of which well over 1,200 are from Darlington, was there to watch.

It is great to see stories such as Darlington, who not so long ago Cardiff City were battling against, love hearing of teams rise from the ashes, their fans having and celebrating success.

A club who ground share with Bishop Auckland at Heritage Park, have got 104 points with one game to play.

Blyth Spartans are second in the league with 99 points, quite amazing that Blyth have got 99 points and have not won the title.

They have been averaging just over 1,500 at home games, good support for a club that doesn’t play at their home ground.

Their away following has been excellent as well, taking over 700 fans away regularly and even over 1,000 a few times this season.

There are some big clubs in the league with Darlo, teams like Blyth, Salford, Stourbridge, Halesowen etc.

The Northern Premier League. Darlington have won is at tier 3 of the National League System, tier 7 of the English football league system.

They have won promotion to the National League North, just one division below the Conference (or the National League as younger fans would know it.)

In May 2012, the club was bought out of a period of administration without entering into a Creditors Voluntary Agreement (CVA). The Football Association ruled that it should be treated as a new club, which required a change of playing name. The name chosen was Darlington 1883, and that team was placed in the Northern League Division One, which is the ninth tier of English football, for the 2012–13 season.

Some will remember Darlington having a 25,000 all seater stadium back in the 2000’s but the man behind the stadium build and their owner George Reynolds was charged with money laundering and this led to a number of years of Darlington struggling.

Good luck to them and it is great to see a club their size making their way back up the pymarid.