MORE than 14,000 people turned out yesterday to support Darlington Football Club in its hour of need - helping secure its short-term future.

The record crowd at the Reynolds Arena will help keep the crisis-hit Quakers afloat for another two months.

The two fundraising games - which starred footballing legends such as Kenny Dalglish, Bryan Robson and Peter Beardsley - had to be delayed by almost an hour due to the sheer numbers queuing for tickets outside.

The matches were organised by manager David Hodgson who said last night he had been overwhelmed by the response.

The club went into administration before Christmas. Debts of about £20m were revealed last week.

Since then the supporters' trust and the club have been frantically trying to raise cash to bring the Quakers back from the brink of extinction.

Organisers had urged Darlington fans to beat the stadium's previous record attendance of 11,600.

The administrators said a crowd of 7,000 would be a major boost to pay wages and bills - but fans doubled that with a crowd of 14,200.

Mr Hodgson, who has worked around the clock to secure a host of big names for the matches, said: "This is going to help us out over the next two months.

"I am absolutely delighted with the turnout. We never expected that we would get such a big crowd and it has been a fantastic day.

"Before today I was expecting maybe 5,000. A big thank-you doesn't go far enough.

"I want to say thank you to every single person for keeping this club alive."

Members of Darlington's two Wembley squads, from 1996 and 2000, turned out to play a celebrity team in one of the two hour-long matches.

The current Darlington squad also played against a team including Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne.

In the all-action fun games, the crowd soon lost count of the score.

A £6m cash injection is needed long-term to save the club. But only one bidder - a consortium of local businessmen - is expected to be able to meet the February 13 deadline for bids.

Darlington Supporters' Trust, which has launched an appeal to raise £250,000 by the end of March, estimated it had raised about £5,000 with collections at the ground and in the town over the weekend.

Board member Tony Taylor said the trust had also been recruiting in a bid to get more than 1,000 members - and managed to pass that total yesterday.

He said: "It was just a fantastic day. It was fantastic as well as being very important for the football club.

"We have had some terrific offers of help, including £1,000 which has been donated by DK Kitchens.

"I spoke to so many people today who had never been to a football match before - and even managed to get one to join the supporters' trust because they had enjoyed the day so much.

"What we want to do now is try to repeat the day's attendance at Darlington's next home game."

The huge crowds caused traffic chaos around Darlington, with jams on the A66 stretching into the town centre.

Gascoigne was sporting an injured nose at the match after running into a glass door at a bar in Newcastle on Saturday night.

Gazza told reporters: "I ran into the door as a dare. I just thought it would be a bit of a laugh to headbutt the glass."

And just before kick-off, Gazza slipped in the tunnel and had to be helped back to his feet before joining the rest of the players.

* The Northern Echo's Sponsor a Minute appeal for Darlington's home game against Rochdale on Saturday has already raised £5,700.