Chorley 1-2 Darlington, Saturday 24th January 2026

Chorley 1-2 Darlington, National League North, Victory Park, att. 1402 (202 away)

I’ve a rare free Satdy and Kev gives me an offer I can’t refuse: Darlo are away at Chorley. I’m not sure how I’ve missed this. Too busy looking at (even) lower league fixtures. I’d been putting off Chorley, waiting...hoping...for Darlo to play them midweek some season (given the pair seem to be entwined in National League North for the foreseeable.) Also, being a Satdy, the chance of going by rail and enjoying more than a beer. Let’s go!

We’re on the same train into Manchester Piccadilly, though it’s rammed and we meet on the platform. A change of platform, a game of Wetherspoons Top Trumps, a beer on the train and we’re in Chorley before…well, before I had time to win the game of Top Trumps. I was winning as well.

We are met with a bold statement across the way from Chorley railway station: ‘Chorley, the best of Lancashire all in one place.’ Wow. Go big or go home. Now I’ve been to Chorley, I need not bother myself with the rest of the county.

We have a beer in the first hostelry we find (not great) but further down the street is the Shepherds’ Hall, a grand place with plenty of choice. Then it’s off to the ground, and it’s a simple, if boring walk, alongside the dual carriageway. Kev’s got the (digital) tickets in, in advance. 15 quid for EFL season-ticket holders (that’s me!) whereas he, a mere ST holder of a National League North side (spoiler: Chorley’s visitors Darlington) has to pay full price, whatever that is. Needless to say nobody checks my EFL credentials at the turnstile.

The ground today is segregated. I presume Darlo’s reputation precedes them. (They once knocked down a fence at Spennymoor.) But it’s fine, we’re all together and not split around Victory Park. (The folks of Chorley are confident types, aren’t they?) There’s a tall terrace behind the goal, albeit a quarter the length of the byeline. There’s grass banking either side. Was this once terrace too? Dunno, but it’s fenced off behind cheerless mesh. Still, the stand has an old-school pitched roof and is dark and cosy. So Kev’s family (cousin, nephew, great-nephew, Kev) decide to stand at the perimeter fence, near the goal, in the cold. No amount of hint-dropping will dissuade them. Supporting Darlington is MEANT to be an endurance, right? Or perhaps they don’t want to be near the Darlo yoof with their infernal drum?

The touchline to our right also has some grass banking and an odd, small stand perched above it on the halfway line, the Dave Prescott Stand. I think this doubles as Chorley’s ‘exec area’ and it must afford some grand views. Opposite is a sizeable main stand, an old pitch roofed all-seater that straddles the halfway line, while behind the goal the terrace at this end stretches the entire width, as does the roof. Nothing here looks like it was built after 1960 and it’s all the better for it.

Being cold, we’ve procured another beer from the refreshment hatch (took ages) and a pie each. I had the last meat and potato in town (till the new batch arrived) while Kev went for local delicacy ‘butter pie’. This does not do what it says on the menu, more of a creamy mashed potato. Not for me, tho Kev lives a semi-vegan life anyway, so it’s no skin off his nose.

We’re further perked up by the score. Darlo go ahead on 23 as the winger beats the offside trap and knocks it across goal for Cedric Main to apply a simple finish. This is Darlo’s bogey ground, I’m told, and it’s true: 2 draws and 5 defeats in 7, including an 8-0 tonking a couple of seasons back that Kev was lucky to be away on holiday for. Eight nil. Against Chorley.

Normal service is resumed after the half hour mark as a scramble ends with the ball hooked into Darlo’s net, and Chorley enjoy their best spell. Cuz moans as the ref indicates 3 minutes of added-on time, but he’s not moaning after 4 minutes of it, as Will McGowan scores an improbable second for the Quakers, curling the ball in first time from 25 yards. Improbable, cos we were right behind it and it was going over all the way till it suddenly dropped over the keeper. Stick it up yer, Chorley. Have some ‘best of County Durham’!

The second half is a bit of a no-show, to be frank. I miss the one bit of action, a Chorley player being sent off, as I’ve wandered towards the corner flag to take some photos and to confirm that the goalposts at this end were LEANING BACKWARDS. ‘Nobody even appealed it’ says a mystified Kev, as in, appealed for the sending-off. It’s not comfortable, but Darlo see it out and cement their place in 6th, a play-off place. And as la famille bid us farewell, we hook up with a couple of Darlo and hit a fantastic pub near the station, the Malt ‘n’ Hops. Busy, great beer choice, and sarnies and pies. It pays sometimes to go the wrong side of the tracks and we’ve found it: Chorley, the best of Lancashire all in one place.

The Damage
£15 ent
= £15

beer and pie on Kev!

West Didsbury and Chorlton 1-2 Darlington, Saturday 14th September 2024

West Didsbury and Chorlton 1-2 Darlington, FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round, Recreation Ground, att. 1,320 (sellout)

I’ve a free Satdy, a planned rail strike (called off, but by then replaced with abominable fares) mean I’m giving the Super Reds a miss today. Scanning the fixtures earlier in the week, I see my boyhood local team Darlo are away at West Didsbury in the FA Cup. The dream draw for Darlo Kev, in Ashton-under-Lyne, surely. ‘Have you bought a ticket?’ ‘Course I have, I was one of the first in the queue.’ He’s slightly disappointed that the Darlo masses haven’t snaffled the rest of the tickets and mere casuals such as myself can still bag one, online. It’s Tuesday, but by Friday, the game is, indeed, a sellout. What does a 1,320 capacity ground look like?

I pick Kev up and we mosey on down to Chorlton-cum-Hardy. What a wonderful place it is. ‘It’s like we’re in Hampstead’ Kev says, as we survey small cafes with French names and streets with actual trees on. Apparently he looked at here when moving back up north, but it was out of his price range. No wonder. We park up and park ourselves in the first pub we come to, The Lead Station. Sat in the bay window with our reassuringly expensive IPAs (Shindigger Mango Unchained, very nice), it really was like Hampstead.

For West Didsbury, ‘South Manchester’s Premier club’ (how many are there?) it’s a 1st time at this stage of the FA Cup. 2nd qualifying round and a former league team coming to the ‘burbs. Kev worries about the upset. 3 divisions apart, surely the Quakers will steamroller this lot into oblivion? Err..not quite. But (spoiler alert!) they do make it through.

We get to the Recreation Ground, and, despite making a big show of the tickets being segregated, it blatantly isn’t. That’s fine though, everyone’s in good humour. We walk around the ground, flat standing on this side, with a fence backing onto wealthy folk’s gardens. At the far end is the pavilion, with a couple of rows of seats under the overhang. Adjacent, there is a small ‘fell off the back of a lorry’ stand. The other long side, meantime, has some grass banking, and on a glorious day like today, this is the place to be. By now we’ve also bumped into Kev’s Greater Manchester-living cousin (who’s not his cousin, but I can’t remember how they’re related). He used to live in a tiny flat here till he married and ‘realised what he could get in North Manchester for the same money’. I’m telling you, this Chorlton-cum-Hardy place is nice.

Although the ground was well populated, it was by no means a squeeze, aside from an area at the end opposite the pavilion. A small terraced stand was packed out with the regulars. Indeed, this wasn’t WD&C’s first four-figure crowd of the season. For a side in the 9th tier, they do very well for themselves crowd-wise. And the shock was on, as an early Darlo lead was cancelled out with a deflected 20 yarder which looped over the keeper. Darlington had looked much the better team, but missed chances. Thankfully Kev and Cuz weren’t embarrassed. Second half, star man Hatfield pulled his hamstring or something while on the attack, but manfully played on and cut it back for a teammate to scuff it in off the post before collapsing and being helped off (Hatfield, not the goalscorer). West Dids had put up a great fight, but their time was over. Kev just doesn’t want a ‘glamour tie’ cos he’s off to see Buffalo Tom in Glasgow the same nite. Is it 1993? Anyway, we both agreed we’d have to come back here again, preferably with a pre-match pub crawl. It is, after all, a very nice place, with plenty of nice looking pubs.

The Damage:
£7 ent
£2 prog
= £9