THE dust has settled on a momentous season for Darlington Football Club. Disastrous might be the best word to describe the events of the last five months – administration, followed by relegation and swiftly after that liquidation. And there could be worse to come, once the Football Association decides how many leagues the new club will have to drop down as penance for its failings.

But there are a number of positives which point, in time, to an altogether rosier future.

In severing ties with the Neasham Road stadium, the club has rid itself of the millstone that was chiefly responsible for the parlous state of its finances in recent years and would surely have strangled the new club at birth had it decided to stay on there. The short-term pain may be a season, or two, away from Darlington, but ground-sharing at Shildon is a much better option than trying, again, to make the Arena work.

A return to its home via a ground sharing arrangment with Darlington Rugby Club makes a lot of sense. Blackwell Meadows is a nucleus of an excellent facility in the right location which could be developed at relatively low cost to the mutual benefit of both clubs.

And finally, the club is now in the hands of its supporters, people whose priority it is to see a well-run football club operated in the interests of fans rather than businessmen.