THE Northern Echo's Sponsor-a-Minute appeal for troubled Darlington Football Club smashed through the £20,000 barrier last night.

Our initiative, which involves companies and individuals sponsoring minutes of the Quakers' league match against Rochdale tomorrow, has raised the money in only one week.

The appeal was set up to help the club survive in the short-term - and the administrators will use the cash to keep it running day-to-day.

Newsquest North-East managing director David Kelly said: "This is a super response by all those companies, organisations and individuals who have the club's future at heart.

"But please keep the sponsorship coming - that's the best way of keeping Darlington Football Club going."

The boost came as the consortium lining up a takeover bid for the club revealed that it would seek to re-name the Reynolds Arena.

The group of local businessmen, together with Darlington Supporters' Trust, is hoping to buy the Quakers and the 25,000-capacity stadium.

Members believe they have the financial clout to save the club, which has debts of about £20m, and will submit a bid to administrators by the February 13 deadline.

If successful, they will open talks with major companies about securing corporate sponsorship - the same route Middlesbrough went down to get the name of the Cellnet Riverside Stadium.

Supporters' Trust board member Tony Taylor said a name change was "a good probability".

He said: "When you have a football club, you've got to maximise your commercial revenue and that's one area that brings in significant amounts of money.

"If a business is guaranteed its name mentioned every Saturday afternoon on TV and mentioned all the time in newspapers, they'd have to think about it."

The trust is also stepping up its fundraising campaign - which has a target of £250,000 by the end of March - by arranging a "loan notes" scheme. The initiative, which proved a huge success at York City, means people donating to the crisis fund can get their money back if supporter representation in how the club is run is not achieved.

It will be mainly aimed at corporate supporters, although it could be opened up to individuals. Mr Taylor said: "We have a genuine belief that our bid, as a consortium, is going to be successful, but we're prepared to offer this safety net."

He also revealed that plans for a "supporter-director" to be elected to the club board were at an advanced stage.

Read more about the Quakers here.