Second title righted wrong for Dale

Dale – pictured lifting the EVO-STIK NPL Premier Division trophy on Saturday after their 5-1 victory over Grantham Town and 11 years after first winning the championship with their treble winning side of 2005-06 – couldn’t contain his delight at getting his hands on the silverware again with the champions now thriving on and off the field after bouncing back from the club’s first ever relegation in 2012.

The 32-year-old said: “It’s been a long time coming. I think we’ve deserved it and - ever since we got the points we needed to win the league in the win over Halesowen - we’ve all been counting down the days until we received the trophy.

“It’s been 11 years since I last won and five years since that mess that we had to fix. It’s taken five years to put that right and anyone that was here at that time knows how much it means to everybody associated with the club.

“It meant a lot to lift that trophy and cap a great season for the club. [When we went down] the team wasn’t very good, we were in a mess and there was hardly any fans here - as a lot had lost interest. It was a long hard slog, but you could see the team coming back together and - every year - it was getting stronger.

“I think we were close last year, but you have to tip you hat to Darlo for what they did and the run they went on in the second half of the season. I fancied it big time this year though - as, whether it was through the playoffs or as champions, it was our turn to go up.”

A number of Dale’s teammates from the successful Harry Dunn side from over a decade ago were in the stands at Croft Park for Saturday’s game, with Peter Snowdon, Chris McCabe, Andrew Leeson and Craig Price - as well as legendary kitman Tony Kennedy - watching from the sponsors’ lounge.

According to the Spartans skipper, who collected their championship trophy from a woman who knows what it means to win, EVO-STIK NPL representative and devoted Darlington fan and former secretary Laura Drew, having the former Spartans cheering on the current generation shows how special the club is and what promotion means to them.

“I think it’s great that the old guard showed up - as I think, if you play for the club, you know what the club means. The lads that were here for on Saturday were 100 percent like that," said the skipper on Sunday.

“The team that won the league last time were a bunch of grafters, it was the changing room that won us the league that year. We weren’t the best quality wise, but we did have a couple of very good players.

“We worked hard for each other though and it shows how together we were that they showed up for the game.That’s just the type of lads they are and it was really nice to see them.”

After the Croft Park crowd far surpassed the 1000 barrier for the second time this season on the final day, Dale is hoping Alun Armstrong’s side can rely on the fans to keep coming next season however tough it gets on their return to the second tier of the Non-League game.

Dale, who is still hoping to do the double on Wednesday night by beating North Shields at Newcastle United's St James’ Park to lift the Northumberland Senior Cup, added: “It’s always better when more people turn up to watch us. It’s a better atmosphere, you can see more people around and it really gets you up for a game. The more you look around, the more you think ‘wow, look at how many people have turned up today’.

“They’re all there for us and, the more they can stick with us next season - which is not going to see us win every game - I think we’ll need the town to be right behind us. Any help we can get, we will take it."

Images courtesy of @bryella5, @MattArmstrong10 & @Blyth_Spartans on Twitter

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