QUAKERS ARE WELL ARM-ED!
ALUN Armstrong says the loyal Darlington supporters have once again shown they are the best in Non-League after raising over £100,000 towards his playing budget.
The National League North club have rallied to give their boss – who has just signed a three-year contract extension – a sure-footing to work from when the game returns.
Almost 500 fans have dipped into their pockets for the second consecutive summer having raised the same amount this time last year.
The latest campaign has been running throughout May and the target of £100,000, which will make up around a third of the playing budget, was passed with a week to spare, leaving manager Armstrong almost speechless.
“It’s frightening and it’s blown me away,” he told The
NLP. “We’ve had board meetings during this pandemic every Thursday night. We’ve been trying to plan but how can you plan for a budget when you don’t know what commercial revenue to expect, how many fans are going to be there, how much boost the budget would raise? You look at the worse-case scenario, in that we might lose 25 per cent of that which you wouldn’t begrudge the fans for.
Staggering
“They raised £10,000 prior to the season ending to cover the four home games that were lost. Then they’ve gone and done this. The board, myself, the staff and the players can’t believe it. It’s staggering what these fans to do for this club. I think it shows they’re enjoying what they’re seeing.”
Armstrong, in his third spell at the club having played for them twice before, arrived last summer from Blyth Spartans and has overseen a rebuild of the playing squad.
He took Darlo to the FA
Cup first round for the first time in ten years, where they scored a 97th-minute equaliser at League Two Walsall to force a replay, which was then televised.
Sat 11th, six points off the play-offs, the cancellation of the league came at just the wrong time.
“We were just starting to come good, in all honesty,” he said. “The job was bigger than
I anticipated due to finances and the amount of money players that were there were picking up.
Platform
“We had to do a hell of a lot of rejigging and bringing people in. We started off with a smaller squad because we still had the difficult finances but the club helped massively in that department. We had the cup run which put some money into the club and put us in a better position too.”
Twelve players so far have agreed new deals to stay at the club for next season and although uncertainty surrounds this period when managers are usually at their busiest, Armstrong has got a head start thanks to the fans.
“They’ve given me a great platform now,” he added. “They’ve taken away a bit of the worry we had during the board meetings thinking we might have to cut the budget.
“When I first played for the club we should have done a lot better with the players we had, we should have got them promoted. Hopefully I can help them get where they want to be as manager, hopefully that may repay them a little bit.
“Every Non-League club says they have the best fans in the world but you have to look at this lot. Everyone’s starting to do this crowdfunding now but this club just seems to want to be the best at it! They’re the best by far.”