Here's another great contribution from Simon Weatherill, our 3-0 win against Rochdale on 28th August 1982.

Serious financial problems had blighted the 1981/82 season, but manager Billy Elliott had still led the team to a creditable mid table position. The fans had raised £50,000 to ensure that the club completed the season and the coffers were further boosted in the summer as Peter Skipper left for Hull City in a £10,000 tribunal transfer and David Speedie was sold to Chelsea for £65,000.

Elliott was given no money to replace two of his most influential players however and had to rely on free transfers to boost his squad. Former Sunderland midfielder Tim Gilbert was signed from Cardiff City, forward Barry Dunn (also a former Sunderland man) signed when released by Preston and full back Trevor Brissett joined from Port Vale. Midfielder Billy Ingham signed from Bradford City, but then within days shocked Elliott by announcing that he was retiring from the game. This meant that the club kicked off the 82/83 season with a threadbare squad of only fifteen professionals. Elliott would have to supplement his squad with loan signings and former youth team players as and when required. The youth team had been disbanded and a reserve team had been entered in the newly formed Northern League Division 2. Many of the previous season’s youth team were still with the club and made up the bulk of the reserve team. Six of them, including Fred Barber and Brian Honour, progressed through into the first team during the course of the season.

Injuries to John Stalker and Gavin Liddle meant that the team virtually picked itself for the opening fixture, at home to Rochdale on 28^th August. Brissett, Gilbert and Dunn would all be making their debuts against the Dale, who were managed by former Quaker Peter Madden. The Lancashire side had finished the previous season fourth from bottom of the table and arrived at Feethams with eight new signings in their squad.  

A disappointing crowd of 1672 were at Feethams to see the Rochdale game. (The match took place on the same day as Kevin Keegan made his Newcastle United debut at St James’ Park. Darlington’s home games coincided with Newcastle’s all season and the Quakers’ attendances suffered accordingly.) They saw the game kick off in bright sunshine and it was the visitors who threatened first. Left winger Peter Farrell curled a 20 yard shot narrowly over Pat Cuff’s bar in the fourth minute. The Quakers hit back and should have taken the lead on 10 minutes. Alan Walsh and Tony McFadden combined well to create an opening for Roger Wicks but he mishit his shot from 8 yards out and Dale keeper Chris Pearce managed to scramble the ball around the post. The home side were beginning to take control of the game now, with Tim Gilbert spraying passes around the midfield with his classy left foot and his fellow debutant Barry Dunn showing superb dribbling skills down the left wing.

Dunn’s signing had allowed Walsh to move into a more central striking role and he was causing new Dale centre half Jack Trainer all manner of problems, and it was no surprise when Walsh opened the scoring after 17 minutes. Rochdale failed to clear a Dave McLean corner and the ball dropped to Walsh 12 yards out and his instinctive first time shot flew past Pearce just inside the post. The Quakers were well on top now and increased their lead on the half hour. It followed a fine, flowing move down the left wing that involved Harry Wilson, Dunn and McFadden, the ball eventually being squared to Walsh, who crashed an unstoppable shot home from 20 yards out. Pearce got his right hand to it but couldn’t stop it on its way into the roof of the net. Half time: Darlington 2 Rochdale 0.

The second half began with the visitors in much more determined mood, and they gained control of the midfield areas and started to get on top. Darlington always looked threatening on the break though with Dunn, Walsh and McFadden linking impressively. Dunn hit one long range effort that Pearce did well to save at the foot of his post, then Walsh had a shot deflected for a corner. In their best spell Dale went close to pulling a goal back, first with a Barry Wellings header that was deflected goalward by Kevan Smith but was brilliantly saved by Pat Cuff, who showed great agility in changing direction to keep the ball out. Then Wellings curled a fine shot just wide. Darlington went looking for a third goal when Walsh crossed towards McFadden but he missed the easiest chance of the game when he blazed over from six yards out. Then Wicks put another chance wide when it looked easier to score. Just when it looked as if Rochdale might force themselves back into the game, the Quakers hit them with a classic counter attack in the 80th minute. McFadden led a quick break down the left and played a perfect through ball to Dunn who fired home with a first time shot on the run in front of the Tin Shed.

The Quakers followed up their impressive 3-0 opening day win with a 5-2 win away at Crewe. Two wins from two with eight goals scored saw the club top of the league. They were still top after four games but then things went wrong in spectacular fashion as two wins in their next 23 games saw the club drop through the whole division to occupy bottom place by the beginning of February. They rallied towards the end of the season with six wins and five draws from their last 16 games, which meant an eventual 17th place finish with 52 points from 46 games.

Attendances were disappointing and hovered around the thousand mark for much of the season. The average league attendance for 82/83 was only 1454, the lowest figure ever for Darlington as a league club. (The “Keegan factor” added nearly 7000 to the average Newcastle attendance, quite possibly affecting crowd figures at Feethams.)

The club made a real effort to improve the match programme for the 82/83 season. The Match Day Magazine, as it was now called, had 16 pages, virtually no adverts, and cost 30 pence. There was plenty of reading material, including columns by manager Billy Elliott and secretary Dave Thorne, Encounters by Frank Tweddle (looking back at previous matches with the opposition), two pages of pen pictures and a full page team photo of the visitors, Division 4 Formations (with what was happening elsewhere in the division), Northern Soccer Scene by Alan Page and fixtures, results and league tables for first team and reserves. The team line-ups appeared on the back cover.

Team v Rochdale: 1 Pat Cuff 2 Trevor Brissett 3 Kevan Smith 4 Alan Kamara 5 Harry Wilson 6 Tim Gilbert 7 Roger Wicks 8 Dave McLean 9 Barry Dunn 10 Alan Walsh 11 Tony McFadden Sub Gavin Liddle (not used).