Old new to many no doubt but I was in Darlington today for the first time in a good few years and I passed the old Darlo ground. It's now a cricket pitch with loads of new houses built on the ground where we had many good and bad moments. A place of history for both them and us. I hated the place but loved going there. The games where Andy Collett outshone Gordon Banks will live long in the memory and I'm sure the loids will have other memories such as them stuffing us in the play offs.

I found it somewhat sad and regretful. I've said before that in my view we are warring twin brothers. Us and them, two sides of the same coin. Loidland to be razed and replaced by twinky houses is a matter of some regret.

Think they knocked down that iconic entrance to the cricket field , that was bang out of order. The amount of town centre sports grounds that have disappeared over the last 20 years or so, is in my opinion, a national disgrace. I wont go into the politics, but we know who are to blame.

Been said bfor but shud of just put a new stand opposite the all seater one instead of goin to the Arena.
Anyway good luck to the Loid's today n hopefully we meet up in round one next month.
UTP.

Human greed is mostly to blame. Same as it was when when Poulson was bribing Labour councillors to vandalise their own town centres, like Stockton allowing him to demolish 18th Century coaching inns on the High Street to make way for the Castlegate Centre - which is itself being knocked down in 2022.
That's an observation not a political point - I vote the same way you do.

its what they call progress and some like it. been going on for years and years and for me no improvements have really been made in most towns. middleton bleeding grange is a good example. however some untouched towns have struggled more than those where the planners have gone beserk with demolishon whilst some like skipton have florished. suppose its what your personal opinions are.

always hated feethams and darlo when we played em. the odd occasions i have seen em in non pools games i have wanted em to win. as a kid i used to love the idea of us playing them in the old division 2 and doing the double on em. know it does not make sense as my ma said to me, but she didn,t like football.

Was having a dig at the rampant capitalism of the last 40 years , not any particular party in general , though the tories always do capitalism worse, they would do , its an ideology thats at its core, but all parties complicit in the greedy land grabs of the last 20 years , with Labour to their eternal shame under Bliar , letting the market rip , culminating in mass de-regulaton and relaxing of planning laws, that has led to these grounds disappearing. The tories prior to Bliar of course set the scene with the selling off of council housing and creating a culture where it was seen as imperative to own your own home on a new build estate.

Let you into a secret here Accrington. Feethams after Craven Cottage used to be my second favourite ground

It always was a cricket pitch Mr I. the way things worked legally The Cricket club owned the land that Feethams was on and the football club had to pay them rent and abide by their rules, this was one of the reasons that Reynolds wanted out. You had to walk around the same cricket pitch to get to the footy, away fans went around the back.

I had a walk around there 3 years ago, the houses aren't very desirable.

I'll never forget yous lot howling like babies whenever a police dog snapped at you around the cricket pitch.

Howling with laughter you mean?

My lasting memory of Feethams was our last visit when we were separated behind the goal from Darlington supporters by what I would describe as a barrier of chicken wire and Brian Honour on top of the shoulders of drunk Poolies shouting and waving his arms about. I had my three grandchildren with me and I had visions of the fence coming down and mayhem. I believe Honour was charged by the Police and in my opinion rightly so he was a disgrace to the club. I forget the result of the court case but I think he got away with it.

The sporting trust owned the land and over the years the cricket club got more control over it, it was meant to be an even split with the town MP being on there too.
In fairness to Reynolds, his idea was to leave Feethams as a ground for the reserves / youth team / local cup finals etc but the cricket club decided up the rent to an amount that made it pointless.
As has been said already, Reynolds should have developed the rest of the ground. He probably wouldnt have crashed financially doing it the sensible way.

even if the biggest miracle since being raised from the dead happened and darlo got into the premier league they,d still have needed thousands and thousands of away fans to just fill the arena. just the same as pools would need for a similar sized ground. every club has a minimum and maximum number of fans they,ll get no matter where and what league they are in.