If Darlington survive their massive off-field traumas, an uncertain future on the pitch awaits. Lee Hall considers what is needed to avoid the dreaded drop to the Nationwide Conference.

It's the million-dollar question to which every club haunted with the threat of relegation would love to know the answer: how many points will guarantee league survival?

Darlington manager David Hodgson is no different. And he has a fair idea of what's required.

According to the Quakers boss, Darlington need to win seven of their remaining 19 games to guarantee Third Division football next season.

In achieving that, Quakers would finish the season on 42 points - double what they have now after 27 games.

A tall order, given the fact that Quakers have won just five league games all season.

But Hodgson stresses that it's a target which could make or break Darlington Football Club - if the club's off-the-field problems haven't already decided their fate by then.

"I've set a target of seven wins and two or three draws which would take us to the 45-point mark," said Hodgson

"Under the current group of teams that would be sufficient to keep us in the league."

On average, 44 points has been enough to avoid a place in the bottom two in the last seven years, although it was only last season that the Football League introduced a two up, two down format, with Shrewsbury and Exeter losing their league status.

It was the latter which recently came to an agreement with its creditors to pay off its remaining £700,000 debt over five years.

Having came through a similar financial situation to that which cash-strapped Quakers find themselves in now, Stuart James of the Western Morning News admits relegation for the Grecians was a bitter pill to swallow initially, but remains confident of better times ahead under new owners, with the club currently in the Conference play-off places.

"Losing our League status was a huge blow at the time, but in many ways it has proved to be a blessing in disguise," said James.

"The team is doing well and, slowly but surely, the business people of Exeter are beginning to come back to the club."

Encouraging words, but a scenario Quakers fans will be desperate to avoid.

Last season, perennial strugglers Carlisle escaped the drop by the skin of their teeth with a creditable 49-point finish.

Only 12 months earlier the Cumbrians finished with the same points total in 22nd place and a point less - and in the same position - in 2001.

No surprise, then, that they occupy the only place below Quakers in the Football League at present.

In 1996 Torquay were handed a stay of execution when, despite finishing bottom of Division Three, their League status was preserved for another season when Conference champions Stevenage were refused entry to the Football League because their ground failed to meet the necessary requirements.

Macclesfield had suffered the same fate a year earlier, with Exeter the grateful benefactors.

However, the following season, Macclesfield's Moss Rose Ground was up to scratch and the Cheshire outfit gained entry at the expense of Hereford.

But, as Hereford and other teams have discovered, League re-election is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Since suffering relegation heartache in 1997, Hereford have spent their last six seasons in the Conference.

And more recently, Halifax, Barnet, Chester and Scarborough have spent more time in the Conference since relegation than they could have imagined.

Indeed, Quakers have been one of the few teams in recent years to spend only one season - their only season - in the Conference.

It was in 1990 that Brian Little led Quakers back in to the Football League at the first time of asking as Conference champions. A year later Quakers claimed the Division Four championship.

After a five-year absence, Doncaster returned to the Football League this season via the new play-off system, competed between teams finishing second, third, fourth and fifth.

And as Doncaster and Yeovil have proved this season - like Quakers did some 14 years ago - Football League newcomers are more than capable of holding their own.

Fans of Macclesfield and, more recently, Rushden can vouch for that. Both went on to play in the dizzy heights of Second Division football.