MADD’S BACK ON A MISSION
Ace is at home with Darlo
REJUVENATED Marcus Maddison is delighted Darlington answered his ‘come-and-get-me’ plea – and now he’s desperate to win something with them.
The 28-year-old, originally from the North-East, proved a stand-out player in a six-year spell with Peterborough United, but became disillusioned with football in a loan spell with Bolton from Charlton in the latter part of the 2020-21 season and retired from the professional game.
Maddison, who can play on the wing or as an attacking midfielder, turned out for Spalding United last term, but has now jumped back up to National League North with the Quakers.
“Things didn’t go well at Bolton and I just wasn’t in the right head-space to play football any more,” he told Darlington’s YouTube channel. “I think taking this year out has made a huge difference to me. Mentally I know what I want now and where I want to be. I’ve got six or seven good years left in football.
“It was a very unconventional way to join a football club. I was thinking I want to come up north, I then had to go on my phone and look at the teams that I could potentially play for.
“I messaged Darlington on Instagram basically sending them my number and saying I’d be interested and I got a call the next day. This is where I wanted to be.
“The manager (Alun Armstrong) explained to me how he wants to make things work and what he wants from me – hopefully I can come in and do that.”
And one thing that Maddison, who has made a habit of scoring spectacular goals, is hungry to do with Darlo is win something.
Quality
“Training day in, day out, year after year and never actually winning anything is very frustrating but the year out has made me realise football is all I know, all I’m good at and it’s what I want to do,” he explained.
“Individually, I had some good performances (at Peterborough), won player of the month, goal of the month, but there was always something missing –
I’ve never won a trophy as a team and that has always bugged me.
“I’ve never been promoted, I’ve never won anything as a group, so coming here that is definitely my goal.”
Boss Armstrong is chuffed to have landed the Durham-born star, who started out with Newcastle United and shone for Gateshead before earning his big move to Posh in 2014.
“After speaking to the lad and finding out what he was wanting to achieve, I just thought it was a no-brainer,” he said.
“He’s got unbelievable quality, everyone can see that. If we can get him anywhere near that level we’ve got an unbelievable player on our hands.”