Our iconic physio, Danny O'Connor, will be in the technical area for one last time against Scarborough in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Here, he reflects on the last five years with the club:

And here are some words from Danny himself.

"Well……where do I even start?? From the moment I 1st walked into this club it was very apparent that it is a very special place. i was lucky enough to be brought in under the management of Tommy Wright and Alan White to what turned out to be a turbulent season. Thankfully we stayed up that season but it resulted in changes with the managerial structure. In came Alun and Daz and initially it was something I was worried about. A new gaffer coming in triggered worries such as “Ohhh what if he doesn’t like me” and “what if he brings his own physio in?”. Thankfully I kept my job and we went on to have some great times together, most memorably the FA cup runs, that Walsall game is a moment and experience that I’ll be telling my grandchildren about. I grew up a Boro fan and had some amazing times on the terraces, so to see the away end erupt like that I can only imagine what it must have been like to be a fan there….great times.

"Ever since I came into the club I felt instantly at home, the full club from top to bottom is filled with some incredible people, some of the unseen things that volunteers do that allows the club to function and run on and away from match days are incredible, then with things like the boost the budget which breaks records year after year just cements how special this place is.

"I feel like I have developed some amazing bonds with the fans since I have been at the club, which hopefully will continue, from the very 1st moment I went on the pitch to treat an injury the banter has been there, I can only imagine what the tin shed though when they saw me run on with my blistering pace haha, luckily they had a bit of fun with it which of course I loved, and it just grew from there. The relationship between me and the fans then grew and grew, to the point where fans were having banter on twitter and bringing me sweets to every away game haha (Peter, you know who you are), obviously this meant I had to return the favour, so I got his details and sent him a plate with a picture of me on it saying “If you can see this farce, you don’t have enough food on your plate, being the athlete that I am I felt it was important that he had appropriate portion sizes haha. I was particularly blown away when my son Rory was born, the amount of cards and gifts we received was incredibly humbling, it made me experience a feeling that I can’t even describe, and for that I will be forever grateful

"Over the years I have had some great banter with opposition fans too, in particular I have always enjoyed places like Hereford and also the rivalry with Spennymoor, had some top banter with Scarborough fans last year so its only fitting that we play them on my last game.

"To summarise (And to end my waffling on because I could talk about this place for days), I would just like to give a Huge thank you from the bottom of my heart, to everyone at the club that I have come across. This is an unbelievably special club filled with some amazing people, sometimes not everyone gets everything right, but I can assure you that from my experience, everyone’s heart is in the right place and everyone’s intention is to get this great club back to league status where it belongs. 

"Keep doing what you do guys, I can’t wait to see you all for one last time on Saturday to thank everyone in person."

Everyone at Darlington FC would like to wish Danny all the very best in the future.