Clive Nattress is one of Darlington's longest serving players. He recalled his memories in the Farewell to Feethams book.

Clive played 303 league games for Quakers, all but one of them in the seventies.

His first season with the club was 1972-73 after he joined from Blackpool, who were then in the old Second Division.

When Clive arrived the manager was former Blyth boss Allan Jones, but Quakers had a torrid start to the Fourth Division season. They had won just three league games before they went to Wrexham for a first round FA Cup replay in November, after drawing the first game 0-0 against the Third Division side at Feethams.

“At the team meeting before the game, Allan said his piece, and about how we were going to play against Wrexham. He left the meeting, but then George Tait, the chairman at the time, came into the room.

“He changed a few things around, and then said to Peter Carr; ‘Peter, you’re giving away too many corners’. Nothing at all about the way he was playing, or should play.

“I couldn’t believe it. When I was at Blackpool, I never even saw the chairman or the directors.”

Not long after that, Clive and several other players were invited to George Tait’s house in Gateshead.

“There was me, Colin Sinclair, Allan Sproates and a couple of others invited to his house, and we couldn’t understand why.

“He gave us all a drink and a cigar, sat us down at a table, and asked ‘what are we going to do?’

“We were all sat there, wondering what he meant. He asked me what I thought, but I’d only been there six months and couldn’t really speak with any authority.

“I told him that we needed more players, because at that time we had a very small squad, and if we had some injuries, then we would really struggle.

“The others said a few other things, and shortly after that, Allan Jones went.”

David Frost visited Feethams for a documentary on life at the bottom of the Football League.

“ I remember that the manager at the time, Ralph Brand, used the F-word on one occasion. We were playing Cambridge at home, and Peter Graham failed to block a free kick when he was standing in the wall, and they scored. The camera was right in front of the dugout when Ralph swore!”

Fortunes improved for Quakers after that season – they finished 19, 21^st and 20^th in the following seasons.

In 1975-76, they had a good run in the Football League Cup.

“In the third round, we were at West Ham, who had won the FA cup only the season before, and had Billy Bonds and Alan Taylor in their side.

“The referee was Alan Kirkpatrick from Bolton, and he disallowed what was a perfectly good goal for us.

“I got involved in a run down the left, and when I got to the deadball line, I crossed into the middle, and Eric Young scored. But the referee disallowed it for offside, even though we protested that I’d pulled the ball back. They scored a second soon after, and the game was over.”

Clive was part of the team which was drawn at First Division Everton in the third round of the league cup in October 1978 after they beat Fulham in a second round replay.

“We were very unfortunate not to win that night,” says Clive. “Peter Madden was manager then, and just as we were about to go on the field before the game, he told us all to sit down. He opened the door, and Bill Shankly walked into the dressing room. Apparently Peter had bumped into him outside, and asked him to come in and have a few words with us.

“What a surprise – we just couldn’t believe it. Shanks told us that we could win the game, and we very nearly did.  Everton had beaten Wimbledon 9-0 in the previous round, and they only beat us 1-0. Shanks was an inspiration.”