‘Let’s make this a year to remember’

May 10 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

ALL week Dave Penney has been trying to forget Darlington’s previous play-off campaigns but the Quakers manager is determined to make this one a memorable occasion to turn a good season into a great one.

That his side are hosting in-form Rochdale in today’s League Two semi-final first leg is a disappointment after injuries saw them lose their way. Chairman George Houghton had titles in mind last summer but for Penney promotion at Wembley would be a decent consolation.

Even forgetting that last Saturday’s was their first win in nine games whereas Dale are unbeaten in their last 10, the play-offs hold dread for Darlington fans, having been denied promotion in 1996 and 2000. Penney, though, dismisses it as irrelevant.

“I’ve only been reminded by people who are negative,” says a man who began back-to-back promotions with Doncaster Rovers by winning the Conference play-offs. “This is a completely different set of players and management so I’m not bothered. People get too up and too down in football. You’ve got to keep an even keel.”

It is something Penney constantly tries to do, shaping his view of the campaign. “There’s three aims you have: as many points as you need to stay up – probably 50, 52, then mid-70s to guarantee the play-offs, and high-80s for automatic,” he explains. “We’ve managed 78 so we’re in the play-offs. We’ll take that. If you have a great season and don’t get any injuries or suspensions you go up automatically. That’s what happened with me at Doncaster and the three teams that got promoted.

“If we win the play-offs we’ll have had a great season. But let’s be honest, this club hasn’t been in the play-offs since 2000 so we’ve got no divine right to be there.”

Penney, whose ex-Derby County and Oxford United team-mate Steve McClaren took training this week, dismisses the significance of momentum. “We’ve not had people available to get it going,” he argues. “We left four or five out last Saturday and I know the other teams left players out to stop them getting injured.”

Julian Joachim, Guy Ndumbu-Nsungu and Ryan Valentine are fit but Pawel Abbott, Gregg Blundell, Andy Oakes and Tim Ryan will play no part in the play-offs.

“You look at the teams that have done well in League One – Leeds, Swansea, Doncaster, Forest – budgets make a big difference,” Penney adds. “The cream always rises. Hereford are probably a one-off in our division but MK Dons and Peterborough have had the better budgets. We always knew they would be the two main teams.

“Can we cope next season? We’ll worry about it then. I’m not quite sure what my budget will be. But the stature’s here and the set-up. We need a better pitch, which we’ll hopefully get sorted next season. We’ve got plans for training facilities behind the ground and I presume the crowds would pick up if you went up a level and were successful.”

Equally crucial, Penney believes, will be a decent youth system. “We haven’t had any kids through for seven or eight years,” he says. “The players up the road (at Middlesbrough) are all from Darlington. We haven’t got any kids good enough and we haven’t for a long time. We had a 16-year-old (Curtis Main) who’s come in during the last couple of weeks but he wouldn’t have if we hadn’t had horrendous injuries, it’s a little bit early for him.”