2009–10 Darlington F.C. season

Background and summary

In February 2009, Darlington went into administration, which meant the Football League deducted 10 points from their total. The club finished the 2008–09 season in 12th place in League Two, only seven points below the promotion playoff places.

On 3 May, a charity game was played featuring international footballer Paul Gascoigne, as well as former players Bernie Slaven and Marco Gabbiadini. This match attracted a crowd of over 3,000 and helped keep the club going. On 7 May, it was announced that no buyer had been found for the football club. On 8 May, it was revealed Darlington's administrators Brackenbury Clark and Company had released the "majority of the first-team squad" from their contracts to cut costs, with immediate effect, as well as the club's coaching staff and administrative staff including caretaker manager Martin Gray, leaving Craig Liddle and Neil Maddison as joint temporary caretaker managers.

On 20 May, former chairman George Houghton returned to the club as owner and chairman and appointed former Middlesbrough boss Colin Todd as manager. However, he kept the club for sale and on 7 August, the club officially came out of administration and were given permission by the Football League to do so with Raj Singh officially taking over as new chairman of the club. New contracts for players such as Lee Thorpe and Jeff Smith and assistant player manager Dean Windass were sanctioned. However, on 26 September, Todd left the club after failing to find a win during the first two months of the season.

He was replaced by former Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton until the end of that season, with new assistant Kevin Richardson. Staunton brought in new players including Irish trialists St Patrick's Athletic's midfielder Gary Dempsey, former Shamrock Rovers' striker Tadhg Purcell, teenage defender Simon Madden, a return for former Darlo player Alan White. Spennymoor Town midfielder Gary Waite and former Hibernian Scottish teenage striker Patrick Deane, also on six-month deals until the end of the season. And on the day of the winter transfer deadline 1 February about half an hour or so before the actual 5pm deadline it was announced that the club had signed another Irish player who was former Inverness Caledonian Thistle defender Richie Byrne.

August

On 7 August it was announced that the club had officially come out of administration and were given permission by the Football League to do so with Raj Singh officially taking over owner and chairmanship of the club it was also confirmed that the Singh consortium were confident enough to appoint manager Colin Todd in the interim period, as well as sanctioning contracts for players such as Lee Thorpe and Jeff Smith and assistant player manager Dean Windass.

September

However, on 26 September it was announced that the club had agreed to let manager Colin Todd resign by mutual consent although Todd was adamant he was sacked and that he didn't agree to anything about resiging by mutual consent whereas the club released a statement saying that they and Todd agreed to let him resign by mutual consent.

October

On 5 October it was announced that former Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton took over as the new permanent manager until the end of that season as well as bringing in Staunton the club bought in an assistant to him who was former Sunderland coach Kevin Richardson coming in on the same deal as Staunton.

December

On 2 December it was announced that a contract row had erupted at the club between manager Steve Staunton and captain Steve Foster, because of this Staunton confirmed he would take away Foster's duties as captain, and would not play him again until a clause in his contract was removed, due to the financial issues at the club, that meant they couldn't agree to his terms, whereas Foster felt he had the legitimacy to have a new contract with these terms, because he stuck with the club through and through during its difficult times (the contracts clause was that if Staunton picked Foster to start the next two games which would be his 20th game of that season that he had the right to sign an immediate one-year contract extension on top of his current deal whatever that may be). So due to this Ian Miller was named as the new skipper replacing Foster for the game at home against Bradford City on 5 December a few days later until the issue had been resolved for Foster to play again, but due to his injury, Mark Bower was named as his replacement for the game as well as vice-captain for the injured Chris Lumsdon a few days later.

January

A month after the reported incident on 4 January 2010, it was announced that former skipper Steve Foster decided that he would remove the clause and terms from his contract as he wanted to resolve his contract issue with and to play for the club again, but he also did this because of the circulating rumours surrounding his position at the club with the winter transfer window that had been open for a few days at that time. After former captain Steve Foster's comments earlier that week on 7 January, manager Steve Staunton announced that he wanted Foster to play just as much as the former skipper but he would only do so if he took the clause out of his contract, as Staunton didn't want to hold the club out to financial ransom, but even though Foster had remained professional throughout the whole situation, kept himself in good shape and available for selection it would be up to him to remove the clause from his contract to enable him to play again. On the same day after weeks of speculation the identity of the two League of Ireland trialists Staunton had brought in was revealed and they were former St Patrick's Athletic's midfielder Gary Dempsey and former Shamrock Rovers' striker Tadhg Purcell and it was also announced the club would sign a former player sometime during the next week and he was former captain and midfielder Clark Keltie after he had been training with the club since the trialists had as well after being released from Rochdale and having short loan spells with Chester City and Gateshead it was expected he would sign a six-month deal until the end of the season as the other two new signings did. Although on 14 January it was announced that at the club arranged Fans Footy Night the night previous, Staunton admitted his frustration at failing to sign Keltie after he agreed that he would sign for the club earlier the next week but instead had a successful trial at Lincoln City which lead to the midfielder making a u-turning decision to opt to sign for them instead but it was all bad news as Staunton also announced another new signing who was another League of Ireland trialist and he was former Leeds United trainee and team mate to Tadhg Purcell at Shamrock Rovers, teenage defender Simon Madden but as well as him Staunton was still interested in another defender who was former vice-captain Alan White after the other club's manager Richard Money told him he was surplus to requirements at Conference National club Luton Town but Staunton also admitted he had talked to the club and their manager about signing the player. Which he did the next day on 15 January on a six-month loan deal from his parent club. On the same day it was announced that as well as signing the former defender and vice-captain, he also signed former Spennymoor Town midfielder Gareth Waite and former Hibernian Scottish teenage striker Patrick Dean, also on six-month deals until the end of the season but instead on permanent ones unlike White. Still on the same day Staunton announced he was interested in signing a goalkeeper and had a number of potential options at his disposal one of which he hoped would signing for the club during the following week. On 18 January it was announced that the club was annoyed that the game against Aldershot Town a few days previous at the weekend was postponed after two pitch inspections by referee Colin Webster, and a lot of work before and after the calling off of the fixture by groudsman Gary Ventress and his staff, as well as being able to hold a training session on it after the match was deemed unplayable by the referee. What angered the club was the fact that the referee deemed the pitch playable after some of the snow had been cleared from the pitch and surrounding areas, due to help from volunteers, and the thaw of the snow over previous days, at 10am, but called a second inspection at 12noon to see if the conditions would improve, but after the groudstaff had worked on it for an hour until the next inspection, it kept raining so the condition of the pitch deteriorated, so the referee called the game off, but immediately after the inspection it stopped raining, so the groudstaff continued to work on the pitch for a further hour, so groudsman thought the pitch was in good condition, so much so that the club decided to hold a training session on it, which went well, which is what angered the club about the match being postponed in the first place.

FA Cup

First Round

League Cup

First Round

Football League Trophy

First Round

Second Round

Player details

Source:

Transfers

Because the Football League accepted the club's exit from administration only in August 2009, although deals had been agreed with a number of players, who had appeared for the club in pre-season matches, these players were not officially registered for the club until 3 August 2009. These registrations also included those of players whose contracts could not be renewed until the club came out of administration.

In

A. ^ Registered as scholar. B. ^ Signed on non-contract terms. C. ^ Signed on monthly contract.

Loans in

A. Cook's loan was arranged for six months, but was terminated early following a serious injury.