FINANCIERS poised to take over Darlington FC will announce on Friday how they plan to run the cash-strapped club with help from a fans-backed consortium, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Provided the deal wins support from creditors, the Sterling Consortium - the financiers that lent former chairman George Reynolds £4m to finish the club's stadium and holds a mortgage over it - is set to assume control.

The group will issue a statement on Friday outlining its plans for taking the club out of administration.

The announcement is expected to include confirmation that a group of local businessmen, together with Darlington Supporters' Trust, will have a key role in the running of the Sterling-owned club.

After a day of talks involving Sterling and the local consortium, it was agreed that a Press release will be sent out at the end of the week.

Lifelong Quakers' fan Mark Meynell, who is heading the local consortium, said its discussions with Sterling representative Stewart Davies had been very good.

The two parties are understood to have established a "declaration of intent" to work together in a bid to build a new future for the club.

The decision to assume control marks a new departure for Sterling, which specialises in lending troubled sports clubs money when other fundraising avenues have closed.

The group - comprising accountants Mr Davies, Melvyn Laughton and Sean Verity - is understood to have agreed reluctantly to step in and become owner of the 121-year-old club.

A company voluntary arrangement - a deal to keep the club out of liquidation - backed by Sterling money, is to be presented to the club's other creditors at their second meeting next month.

It would offer them a small amount of what they are owed, but administrators Wilson Field are working on the theory that a little is better than nothing.

Earlier yesterday, joint administrator David Field told the Darlington branch of the North-East Chamber of Commerce that, on paper, Sterling stood to lose the most from the club folding.

"They can either do nothing and lose that £4m or they can put more money in and secure a voluntary arrangement," he said.

"We think we know what they will do and we think we will be in a position to propose a voluntary arrangement in the next few days, and creditors will either accept or reject that.

"If they accept it, the club would come out of administration.

"If they reject it, the Football League won't allow the club to continue next season."

But George Reynolds could still sink what is the only potential rescue deal.

On paper, he is the largest unsecured creditor. The last audited accounts, for April 2002, show he is owed £5.6m. He claims the figure is now closer to £20m.