Darlington Football Club stands on the brink of the unthinkable. A club that has been a proud and important part of the local community for 121 years is close to going out of business.

Much has been done to try to stir the embers back into life since Christmas saw the club taken into administration.

David Hodgson has been outstanding in his efforts to raise vital funds, in transforming performances, and in rekindling a family-friendly atmosphere that had been killed stone dead.

Supporters have played their part by contributing to fund-raising initiatives launched by Hodgson, the Supporters' Trust and The Northern Echo. The goodwill has returned.

But unless George Reynolds agrees to the only rescue deal on the table, the club faces liquidation, a future outside the Football League, and the town will be left with a white elephant of a stadium which will be a huge embarrassment to the local authority.

We understand Mr Reynolds' reluctance to accept a fraction of what he has put into the club. Who wouldn't?

He saved the club and built a superb new stadium. The sadness is that the Reynolds Arena became a financial millstone that has pulled the club down amid a public relations disaster.

It has hard to hold out much hope after a day of negotiations ended in deadlock yesterday.

In the unlikely event of Mr Reynolds changing his mind and agreeing to the Sterling Consortium's proposal to keep the club going, he would have lost a great deal of money.

But if he refuses to budge and the Quakers are liquidated, no one wins.

Mr Reynolds will still end up with a fraction of what he invested. We know he will blame everyone else - but history will remember him as the man who shut down Darlington Football Club.

Somehow, a compromise has to be found.