David Steel | 8th April 2023
On Tuesday 28th March (and rolling into Wednesday 29th March...), DFCSG Director and DFC Hospitality host Andrew Scullion travelled down to Banbury on the first team coach to gather some insights into the commitment and sacrifices our part-time players make to serve Darlington Football Club.
Darlington Football Club are not Manchester City, Barcelona or PSG for plenty of reasons. Two of them being that we are a fan owned club - at time of writing 1,254 Darlo fans own c87% of the club - and that our players are part-time.
As part-time players, the vast majority of our squad have jobs away from playing football. This has been the case since fan ownership commenced in 2012 and we stormed the Northern League in that first season away from The Arena.
As such, a 408 mile-round trip to face Banbury on a Tuesday evening in a National League North game is a commitment way beyond a long coach journey down and a return home at 2-3am the following morning, as Andrew Scullion wanted to find out.
Andrew travelled down to (and back up from...) Banbury on the first team coach and caught up with the likes of Ben Hedley, Jassem Sukar, Tommy Taylor, Alex Purver, Jacob Hazel and kit man Gary Smith to understand just what goes on in their personal lives before and after a game trip such as this.
Did you know that Ben Hedley lives 240 miles/four hours north of Banbury, so had an additional 100 miles and two hours of travel on top of the team coach travel of around nine hours?
Did you know that Tommy Taylor fits kitchens for a living when he isn't catching crosses for Darlo? Did you know that Jacob Hazel had turned down international duty with St Kitts & Nevis to fight for three points for Darlo in Oxfordshire that night?
The game ended 0-0. 408 miles and 12.5 hours from leaving Blackwell Meadows to arriving back for a potentially valuable point.
Andrew's two-parter video below is an excellent eye opener for those who think that football, at any kind of professional level, is all glitz and glamour, and certainly a timely reminder to our fans at the business end of the season of the effort our players put in off the pitch, never mind on it.
Want to be a part of those DFC Owners who own the majority share in Darlington Football Club? Then read more and sign up here - it is just £25 a year or £2.09 a month to say that you part-own your football club.
