Former Darlington lad Harry Lough concludes his memories of watching Quakers in the sixties

Lol Morgan was appointed manager, and the promotion team was assembled, best season ever for me. There were some great wins that season, the 4-0 win against Torquay was the stand out game that I attended. I also went to see Darlo play at Valley Parade and the Shay. One away game I will never forget was at Donny Rovers,

It was a night game, I finished work, rushed home for some tea and then set off for Donny on my Lambretta.

It turned out to be the journey to hell, by the time I got to Wetherby freezing fog had come down, but after getting that far no way was I going back. Arriving in Donny frozen through, and then I couldn't find the ground.

By the time I found it about half an hour had been played, I just could not get interested in the game, I was  that cold, all I could think about was the journey home, and I set off home before the final whistle. It took me about

4 hours to get home, I swore I would never again attempt a journey like that again.

Another game I remember from the promotion season was the game against Port Vale, as they emerged from  the tunnel they were like a team of giants, everyone of them must have been over 6 foot (Tony Pulis, eat your  heart out)

The greatest goal I have ever seen scored was by John Peverell. We were playing Swansea at home, Pev was  storming forward, in his own half and close to the touchline, the ball was played in front of him, he ran onto it and without breaking step ,walloped it. I was behind the goal that day, I could not believe he would shoot from that  distance, the Swans goalie, Millington, who was a Welsh International, never moved, the ball flew across him, like  a missile, into the top corner of the net, FANTASTIC GEOFF. Many years later, after he retired I spoke to Pev.  on the phone about that goal, did you mean to shoot from that distance I asked? He was adamant that he was  having a pot shot, and nothing else. When you see goals scored from that distance, they are shot cum lobs,  with the goalie scrambling back to get to the ball. The ball probably never went more than 10 foot from the  ground, and as I have said, like a missile.

Another fantastic goal, the game in the league cup against West Ham, Ray Spencer, Darlo left half, ran forward  with the ball, beat a couple of men and from about 35 yards let fly, the ball flew into the top corner of the net,  what a goal. The occasion helped to make it great,1st Division opposition, massive crowd that erupted, one of the first games I can remember under floodlights, best of all we knocked them out.

Most controversial goal was scored by Bill Baxter at Feethams in the FA Cup game, the start of the epic 4  games we had against Hull City. We were 1-0 down with only a couple of minutes to go, he had the ball on the  left wing and tried what you could only describe as a shot cum cross. Their goalie jumped up and then left the ball, we thought it had gone over the bar. Within seconds all hell lets loose, the referee had blown his whistle,  and pointing to the centre circle, the ball is in the back of the net, the goalie and his defenders are going ballistic. They surround the ref, the goalie and a couple of defenders then run to the goal to examine the net, but they cannot find any holes, the goal stands. There was a rumour going around that a Darlo fan had lent over the barrier and shoved the ball under the net, bit far fetched. Wish it had been me, that would have been  something to write about.

Did not go to the replay at Hull, but after that was a draw, went to the next game at  Elland Road. We were all over them, there was only going to be one winner that night, after 90 minutes it was still all square, the pitch had cut up and like a quagmire. The referee refused to play extra, time Hendo was going  off it with him, we were well on top that night, in the end another replay at Ayresome Park, I was at the game,  but we were well beaten that night.

My days of watching Darlo ended when I joined the army (not the barmy one, some times it felt like it) I came back to Darlo for 4 years after leaving the army, I worked at Coles Cranes where I started off a factory  team with Davy Brown, he played a lot of years for Glebe Road, I was refereeing a game and I sent Davy off,  never spoke to me for days after, am I forgiven yet Davy..

After that moved to Tow Law, where I helped start  off Tow Law Juniors, never seen as much snow as when I was there in 1979.

Today my wife and I are happily retired in a Greek village on the island of Crete.

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