IT is the end of a colourful, bizarre, controversial, and ultimately very sad era in the history of Darlington Football Club.

It began with optimism and wild promises. It ended in acrimony and an intimidating atmosphere.

George Reynolds has left Darlington Football Club four-and-a-half years after stepping in to save the Quakers and six months after the opening of a 25,000-seater stadium in Neasham Road.

It is no secret that The Northern Echo's relationship with Mr Reynolds has been extremely difficult. It would be easy for us to say "good riddance", as many will undoubtedly will, but that would be an undignified way to mark the end of the Reynolds reign.

We have consistently given him due credit for rescuing the club and for having the ambition to build a stadium which was beyond the wildest dreams of Quakers' supporters. He has invested and lost millions of pounds in the process and even staunch critics will see some sadness in the demise of a man who simply got carried away with his own ego.

But in saying that, there can be no doubt that George Reynolds only has himself to blame. He embarked on an enterprise which made no business sense, believing that fans would turn up in their droves just because the stadium was nice, no matter how poor the football on show might be.

It was like expecting customers to keep shopping at Harrods even if Poundstretcher goods were on display.

And all the time, fans, local residents and members of the business community were being alienated. Critics, journalists at The Northern Echo among them, were abused and told to expect "visits" to their homes. The police were called to intervene on more than one occasion.

On Christmas Eve, as the club finally went into administration, we called on our front page for Mr Reynolds to go in the interests of the club.

He had lost the goodwill of the local community and there could be no future for the club while he remained. Fans being asked to throw coins into fighting fund buckets repeated the same question: "Will it go to Reynolds?"

Businessmen being asked to invest in the club came back with the same answer: "Not while Reynolds is involved."

It is the harsh truth and only now can the club properly look to the future, if it has a future.

The over-ambitious and splendid Reynolds Arena - a new home designed for a side of Premiership pretensions - may well end up as the final resting place of a dead football club.

The George Reynolds era is over. We hope that a way forward can now be found, that the whole community will rally round, that local people who have withheld their support will now show that they do not want to see the 120-year-old traditions of a proud football club end up in the gutter.

For that would be a truly sad end to the dream.