In our Memory Match this week, Simon Weatherill remembers the League Cup tie against Swindon Town on 25^th September, 1990.

After a one year absence, Darlington kicked off the 1990/91 season back in the Football League. After relegation to the Vauxhall Conference, manager Brian Little had completely rebuilt the team and brought the club back into the League by winning the Conference championship at the first attempt. Little only made one significant signing during the summer when he added Mick Tait to his squad, on a free transfer from Reading. Other than that he kept faith with the players who’d served him so well in the previous season.

The team started the new season with a 1-0 defeat at Gillingham, but then things improved with victories over Burnley and Halifax and draws against Walsall, York and Wrexham, so that after the opening month of the season, the club sat handily placed in 8th place in the Division 4 table with nine points from six games. Their return to the Football League meant that they were once again eligible to compete in the League Cup (this year to be sponsored by Rumbelows). In the first round they overcame Blackpool over two legs, due to the away goals rule (0-0 at Feethams and 1-1 at Bloomfield Road after extra time) and the draw for the second round paired the Quakers with Swindon Town, again to be played over two legs. The first leg would be at Feethams on Tuesday, September 25th.

At the time, Swindon should really have been a top flight side. They had finished the previous season in fourth place in Division 2 (now the Championship) and had beaten Sunderland 1-0 in the play off final at Wembley at the end of May, to secure their place in Division 1. Ten days later however, they had fallen foul of league rules and had been found guilty of making irregular payments to players and were relegated two divisions. They appealed and had their punishment reduced to one relegation, so in effect, they remained in Division 2 and Sunderland were promoted in their place into the top tier. Manager Ossie Ardiles managed to keep the majority of his squad together and they’d shaken off their disappointment and made a decent start to the new season. By the time they visited Feethams they sat in 4th place in Division 2, with 13 points from 7 games. They named an unchanged side after a 4-2 win at Oxford on the previous Saturday, a full strength side minus skipper Colin Calderwood who was out injured with ligament damage. His place in the side had been taken by Dave Bennett (brother of Gary), a £50,000 signing from Sheffield Wednesday in the previous week. The Quakers also named an unchanged eleven after a 1-1 draw at Wrexham. David Corner had received a knock during the game but had recovered to keep his place against Town. Their only absentee was central defender Jimmy Willis, still recovering after breaking his leg at Telford in the previous April.

A crowd of 4037 turned out at Feethams to see what promised to be an entertaining game between two strong, in-form sides, even though two divisions separated them. Swindon started the game brightly and completely dominated the first twenty minutes with their fluent, push and run, passing game. The Quakers were struggling to get into the game but still managed the two best chances of the half, when hitting Town on the break. After nine minutes, winger Paul Emson fired in a close range shot which was saved in spectacular fashion by Swindon keeper Fraser Digby, and in the 23rd minute John Borthwick hit a fierce drive, but Digby proved his agility again with another flying save. Both chances were created by David Cork, who also had two “goals” disallowed, one for pushing and one for offside.

At the other end Mark Prudhoe made two good saves to keep Duncan Shearer out. The half finished goalless but ended on a sour note after a tackle from behind by Gary Gill left Dave Bennett with a double fracture of the left leg.

The Quakers began the second half on top. Digby saved shots from Borthwick and Cork with his legs, before he was finally beaten in the 50th minute. Les McJannet slipped a neat ball to Gary Gill down the right hand edge of the box. Gill had timed his run perfectly to stay onside and his square ball across the face of the goal was met by Cork, who tucked it neatly under Digby from six yards out. Swindon tried to hit back but the Quakers always looked capable of more goals. Andy Toman was next to try his luck but lashed a fierce volley just wide and into the side netting after 61 minutes.

Twelve minutes from time the home side got the second goal that their play deserved. Borthwick broke from his own half, evading several tackles, before slipping the ball to Cork, who was upended by Ross Maclaren. Cork managed to force the ball into the net as he went down, but the referee had already awarded the penalty. Frank Gray made no mistake from the spot.

Things got even better for the Quakers in the 86th minute when John Gittens made a complete mess of an attempted headed back pass from a McJannet cross, and left Cork with a simple close range tap in for his second of the night, to complete a resounding, if somewhat unexpected 3-0 win.

It all went horribly wrong for Darlington in the second leg, played at the County Ground on October 9th. Les McJannet missed the game with a hamstring injury and the reshuffled Quakers defence just couldn’t handle a rampant Swindon side, inspired by big money new signing Micky Hazard. Town wiped out Quakers advantage with three first half goals and completed the tie with a 70th minute winner to dump Darlington out of the cup 3-4 on aggregate. As the old saying goes – at least now the Quakers could concentrate on the league!

The programme for the 90/91 season consisted of 24 pages and cost 80p. The front cover featured action shots from the previous season’s championship clincher at Welling. Inside were all the usual match day articles – Managers Notes, two pages on the opposing team, Captains Corner, View from the Press Box, Yesteryear (with a previous game on this day in the past), kit sponsorship details, supporters club notes, previous encounters with today’s opponents, action photos, reserves and juniors news, Fourfax (with news of what was happening elsewhere in the division), match facts and figures and of course the team line-ups on the centre pages. 

Team v Swindon : 1 Mark Prudhoe 2 Les McJannet 3 Frank Gray 4 Gary Gill 5 Kevan Smith 6 David Corner 7 Paul Emson 8 Andy Toman 9 John Borthwick 10 David Cork 11 Mick Tait Subs (not used) 12 Steve Mardenborough 14 David Geddis.