In the fifth part of our series, we look back to the story of the 1984-85 season, as described in Darlo's on the Up.

Somehow, Quakers dig into their mental and physical reserves to drag themselves over the promotion-winning line.

Quakers faced Hereford on March 29^th, and drew 1-1, leaving them without a win in four league and cup games.

The Despatch said; “Darlington skipper David McLean silenced the booboys with a last gasp goal which clinched a precious point.” Quakers trailed until McLean equalised at the death, when he curled a right foot shot into the far corner.

The failure to take chances was obvious again, and Cyril said; “We created far more chances than Hereford did, but it seems as though there is a wall around the six yard box at the moment. Getting a goal like that should have a good psychological effect.”

They were now third, two points behind Bury and three behind Chesterfield. More importantly, they were four ahead of fifth placed Hereford.

It was announced that long serving trainer Dickie Deacon was going to receive a Canon League loyalty award for 46 years’ service to the club. Chairman Archie Heaton said; “Darlington wouldn’t be Darlington without Dickie.”

The run of three league games without a win was ended on April 2^nd, when Quakers beat Southend 3-1 at Feethams. They were now level with Chesterfield at the top of the table, and seven points ahead of fifth placed Hereford.

Carl Airey had been missing for two matches, and Steve Butterworth wrote in the Despatch; “Airey returned with a vengeance to spark a gutsy performance.”

Cyril Knowles said; “It was a relief to get a win under our belts. Carl made a big difference, he upsets defenders. They are always looking over their shoulders when he’s around. But we are still not clinical enough in front of goal.”

Southend were a goal up, until Airey fired hard and low across the face of goal and Kevan Smith was on hand to slide home his second goal of the season.

David McLean then had a penalty saved, before Airey fired in another low cross, Peter Johnson’s shot was blocked and Garry Haire forced the ball home.

The Southend defence gift wrapped the third, when a defender lobbed the ball back to his keeper, who could only parry it straight to Airey, who tapped in.

Four days later though on April 6th, they slipped up 3-0 at Tranmere Rovers.

“It never looked like being Darlington’s day,” said the Northern Echo. “Promotion-chasing points were always going to elude them.”

Quakers were 2-0 down in the first 15 minutes, and a penalty put them three behind before half an hour had gone.

The Echo also observed that “Darlington boss Cyril Knowles gave his players a roasting for their performance.”

On Easter Monday though, they regained top form by beating Mansfield 3-1 at Feethams, and went back joint top of the table with Bury.

“Three first half goals were enough to clinch three precious points on a strength sapping Feethams pitch” said Steve Butterworth. Garry MacDonald nipped in, from a Carl Airey flick, to lift the ball over the keeper for the opener, then an 18 yard shot by Steve Tupling was deflected in. MacDonald headed down a Kevan Smith cross for David McLean to score with a screaming volley from just inside the area.

Cyril said; “Even though we won, I don’t think the game should have gone ahead. It was a battle in the mud. The players chased everything in the first half and they put so much effort in, they were absolutely deadbeat.”

Darlo were now tied with Bury on top of the table with 73 points, followed by Chesterfield on 71, Blackpool on 69 and Hereford with 67.

The players’ reward was three days off, which from Cyril was quite generous!

Their next game was at Wrexham on April 13th, and Quakers had to thank the home side’s keeper Mike Hooper for putting through his own goal in the last minute and giving them a 1-1 draw. A corner came into the crowded Wrexham box, and Hooper misjudged the flight of the ball and punched the ball into his own goal. Soon after he signed for Liverpool.

Midfielder David McLean said; “A game is played over 90 minutes and I never think that we have lost until the final whistle. I thought the keeper was going to catch the ball, but he tried to punch it and thankfully it went into the net.” Wrexham had gone a goal up on 87 minutes.

Off to Bolton’s old ground, Burnden Park, for their quarter final in the Freight Rover Trophy, but any hopes of progressing were dashed by a 2-1 defeat.

Steve Butterworth wrote in the Despatch; “If, or should I say when, Darlington reach the Third Division they are going to have to be a lot less charitable than they were at Bolton.” George Oghani scored a last minute winner for Bolton after Garry MacDonald’s early goal was cancelled out.

They bounced back on April 20^th with a 2-1 home win over Peterborough, David McLean scoring both goals to give him twelve for the season. The Despatch headline was “Classic McLean.”

Cyril Knowles said; “I was delighted for David. He scored two tremendous goals and the second one was the best I’ve seen at the club.”

New signing Colin Smith from Shildon passed the ball inside to Garry MacDonald, who clipped the ball through for McLean to run on to and drill a low hard shot into the corner of the net. The second came when Carl Airey chased down the left, drove the ball across the face of goal, and it was knocked to McLean who blasted through a ruck of players from about twelve yards.

They were looking good now, with 77 points, with seven games remaining. Chesterfield were top with 80, Blackpool in third on 76, and Bury on 74. The club that mattered, Hereford, were in fifth, seven points behind with six games remaining. It was in Darlo’s own hands now.

But then they suffered an attack of the jitters. On April 23^rd, they lost 2-1 at bottom of the table Northampton.

The Evening Despatch headline was “Cyril lashes front men for let down.”

Cyril, needless to say, was unhappy. “We had enough second half chances to have won by four or five. On four occasions we got through with only the keeper to beat but missed out. Our defenders are showing more confidence in those situations than our forwards. The problem seems to be that some of our players think we are already promoted. If a couple of results don’t go our way, then a bit of panic could set in.”

Northampton took the lead, and Darlington equalised when a David McLean corner was flicked on by Kevan Smith for Phil Lloyd to score with an overhead kick. There was plenty of Darlington pressure after that, but Northampton broke away and scored the winner in the last minute.

Hereford beat Crewe 3-2 to go four points behind Darlo, who had dropped to fourth.

On Saturday April 27^th, Hereford could only draw 1-1 with Northampton to reduce the gap to three points, but Quakers couldn’t respond the following day at Swindon because they lost 1-0.

The Despatch said; “Cyril Knowles left the ground soon after the finish and sat on the coach all on his own.” Maybe the tension was getting to Cyril as well.

Quakers were in control for three quarters of the game, but a mistake by Peter Johnson led to Swindon scoring the only goal of the game after 76 minutes.

“The Quakers could have no real grumbles as they hadn’t managed a clear shot at goal in the entire 90 minutes,” added the Despatch.

The nerves were really jangling now, and that showed on the night of May 1^st when Quakers faced fellow promotion contenders Blackpool at Feethams and lost 4-0.

The Despatch said; “A steady flow of Darlington fans trooping away from Feethams told its own story. The 4-0 scoreline did the Seasiders justice.”

Cyril Knowles admitted; “We were murdered. It was men against boys. Blackpool were strong, they were getting in on everything and they were a different class. That was real pressure and the kind of pressure we haven’t had down here this season.”

Fortunately on the same night Hereford lost 2-1 at Chester City, so Quakers were reprieved. The gap remained three points and Hereford only had three games to play.

Chesterfield had 86 points, Bury 83, Blackpool 81, Darlington 77 and Hereford 74.

Darlington might have been playing badly, but so were Hereford, because on May 3^rd they crucially lost 2-1 at Halifax. Quakers now needed a minimum of four points from four games.

Port Vale were the next visitors to Feethams on May 4^th, and Cyril did his best to drum up home support for the game. “What we need now is as much encouragement from the fans as possible – what we don’t want is any stick from supporters.”

Darlo weren’t at their best, but Carl Airey silenced the slow handclappers with an 80^th minute equaliser from a Peter Johnson cross to give them a precious point in a 1-1 draw.

Cyril Knowles said; “If people couldn’t see before, they could see today that there was pressure out there.”

By now, the three clubs above Darlo -- Chesterfield, Bury and Blackpool -- were all promoted.

Darlo went to Crewe two days later needing a win to clinch promotion, but the fans also kept in touch as best they could with events at Hereford, who were playing Exeter City. No mobiles or internet in those days, transistor radios were the means.

Carl Airey gave Darlington the lead from a David McLean free kick, but Kevan Smith equalised with an own goal when he put a looping header over Fred Barber.

Airey chipped a second goal, and even though Crewe equalised, word started to come through that Hereford had blown their chances at home to Exeter, and had lost 2-1. The celebrations started -- Darlo were promoted!

Cyril Knowles said; “We’ve come a long, long way in twelve months and I’m absolutely delighted for the players and supporters.

“I never dreamt I would get success so quickly as a manager. We have been magnificent when you compare us with other clubs in the division. I knew the situation when I came to the club, and I knew what job was in store for me. I just wish the old chairman (Ken Warne) had been here to see it.”

The Evening Despatch commented; “The Darlington supporters who saved their club by raising £53,000 in 49 days in the Despatch appeal two years ago, have every right to celebrate – and to be honoured. Anyone who believes it has been easy should look at the frozen faces of the players on Saturday and the look of relief when Carl Airey scored.

“They ended their travels with a display which bore the hallmarks of this campaign’s success story. From the off it looked as though they were playing for their lives, rather than promotion and got just the start they wanted.

“Knowles’ transformation of Feethams has been little short of miraculous and the result of his hard graft was fully brought home at Crewe.”

Steve Butterworth said; “One of football’s perennial strugglers have something to shout about. A young manager and a young team have beaten all the odds.”

David McLean said; “We’ve waited six years for this, and it’s been worth waiting for. We know it means a lot to the fans, and it means a hell of a lot to us.”

John Craggs said; “All the players deserve credit because it has been teamwork more than anything which has taken us up. It’s fantastic that we have kept it up for the whole season with the small squad we have had.”

Chairman Archie Heaton said; “We have had to cope with different pressures in the past when we had been worried about our finances and our league position. Now the pressure is on to build on the success and our obvious aim is to consolidate in the third division. We still have a small overdraft, but at least the bank manager now smiles when he sees us.”

The last two games were almost academic, and if Darlo won them both, they would finish above Bury.

There was a carnival atmosphere at home to Stockport, and with the pressure off, Quakers won 3-1. Mark Forster came in for Carl Airey, and scored two and set up one.

Stockport led at one stage, but Peter Johnson crossed for Forster whose header bounced off the bar, and Steve Tupling applied the finishing touch. Garry Haire then sent over a perfect cross for Forster to head in, and Garry MacDonald flicked on a McLean corner for Forster, who spun and clipped the ball home.

And a long and successful season finally ended on May 14^th when Quakers beat bottom club Torquay 1-0, with a Mark Forster goal, a stooping header from a David McLean corner for his 11^th goal of the season.

There was a minute’s silence before the game in memory of the 56 victims of the Bradford City fire disaster, which had happened just three days before.

Quakers finished third in the table, with 85 points, one behind Blackpool and six behind Chesterfield. Bury finished fourth, a point behind Darlington, and Hereford another seven points further back in fifth.

After the season ended, Kevan Smith said in the Evening Despatch’s promotion special; “Dave McLean and I have been here six years and to see this result at the end of it, is absolutely out of this world. We have given blood, sweat and tears, and now we can see something at the end of it.

“I think we will hold our own next season, Cyril will see to that. At the beginning of the season we had hardly any players, but the boss has done well bringing in new players.

“We have not had the experience of other teams at the top, but the boss has knit together skill, effort, determination and players who are prepared to climb mountains if they had to.

“Losing players like Colin Ross and Mike Angus were blows. I think if we had them all season, we would have won the championship.

“Towards the end of the season we were in with a shout, but we had one hell of a fixture list in March and almost cracked. That’s when we could have done with a bigger squad of players.”

In the same special, Carl Airey was pictured holding the baby of Darlington fan Stephen Milne. The boy was called Carl Airey Milne.

Airey was signed from Barnsley for £6,000 as a replacement for Allan Walsh. “I wasn’t a regular at Barnsley and I knew I only stood a chance of playing in half the games. But signing for Darlington I knew I stood a chance of playing 40 games.

“My confidence had gone in front of goal at Barnsley and I had to prove to myself that I could score goals, so the Fourth Division was my opportunity.

“When I first came, I wanted to score as many goals as I could and hope that a bigger club would come in for me. But the season progressed and we were in with a chance of promotion and I wanted to start to achieve something. I’ve never won anything before , apart from the Northern Intermediate League with Barnsley two years ago.

“The last four games (before Crewe) were terrible. The lads thought we were up and slackened off a bit. But everybody has battled from day one, and although we have slackened off in the last few games, we have deserved it.

“It’s the best thing that has happened to Darlington for ages. The fans have been absolutely great. They have been in the shadow of Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, but now they have something to shout about.”

There was a tribute to former chairman Ken Warne in the pullout. “His vital role in securing the club’s future made it all possible. He had to put all his business acumen to good use in guiding Quakers through a financial minefield. He helped Quakers weather each crisis and prepare for the day when, perhaps, a dream may come true.”

Cyril Knowles said that he was amazed at the team’s success. “I never really dreamt this was in store for us, I thought it would be another survival fight. But after the Chesterfield game when we drew 0-0, everything went rosy for us. We went right up to Christmas without getting beaten away and had just one defeat at home which is an unbelievable record.

“I have got to give the players full marks. It has all been down to their attitude. The commitment of the players has been fantastic. They have trained when they shouldn’t have done, they have played when they shouldn’t have done and they haven’t given me a qualm all season.

“For many of them it was their first full season on League football, and I still can’t believe we have achieved what we have with such a small squad.

“My ambition at the start of the season was just to carry on improving. We improved by one point the first year and I thought we might be in with a chance of promotion in one or two years. But the lads just kept on going from strength to strength.

“Everybody started to get the jitters three or four weeks ago, that was understandable. Then people started talking about Hereford losing and making it easy for us.

“But what you have to remember is that we were well in front of them and deserved to be. We were the best team in the division in the first half of the season and looked like giving Chesterfield a run for the championship until we slipped up towards the end.

“When you look at the wage bills of Bury, Blackpool and Chesterfield and compare them with ours, it’s amazing what we’ve achieved.

“The players have felt real pressure. We have been though a lot together this season, but now they can say they’ve been in a promotion side. We haven’t won the championship, and it’s a shame about that, but we have won promotion and our success will give a lot of other clubs in the Fourth Division hope.”