Martyn Jackson and Dave Woodcock are in buoyant mood, and so they should be. Just two days earlier a 4-0 win at Whitehaven was Darlington Railway Athletic's ninth consecutive victory and they are riding high in the Wearside League.

The RA are on a roll; two promotions in four seasons, seven titles in all - one being a Northern Echo 2001 Team Award no less - say the RA are a club going places.

As recently as 1998 Martyn, currently the club's secretary and treasurer, was keeping RA afloat in the Darlington District League, which often required clearing both children and unsightly messes from park pitches before kick-off while travelling much further than Newton Aycliffe for an away game was rare.

Before that however, the RA had to overcome dark days as financial trouble hit the club in 1992 which forced the team to fold. But Martyn refused to let the team die, so he rescued the RA, and used the club's former reserve players to reform the team in time for the 1993-94 season.

Since then times have changed drastically for the Brinkburn Road-based club; away trips take RA to the likes of far-flung Whitehaven while odorous obstacles are now a rarity.

In 1998-99, Martyn and Dave's first season as a duo, they guided RA to the Darlington District League title, and the following year won the RA Medals Trophy in what was their first season in the Auckland and District League where they finished third.

The following campaign 2000/01, was the club's greatest year. They managed what is believed to be an unprecedented quadruple by winning the League as well as a trio of cups - namely the Darlington Charity Cup, the Sacriston Aged Miners Cup and the Auckland Charity Cup. A narrow semi-final defeat in the Durham Trophy denied them a fourth final appearance that season.

Having finished at the summit of the Auckland and District League at the second attempt, a switch into the Wearside League soon followed where the RA managed another third-place finish.

Dave explained the reasoning behind the move to the Wearside. "We had won three cups and the league and I said at the time that if we stood still we're going to lose some of these players," he said. "So we decided to apply to the Wearside and we're now one of the better teams in that League after only two years."

Now, floodlights, a stand, an adjacent all-weather training pitch and new changing rooms are all arriving in the none too distant future. Times have certainly changed at Brinkburn Road.

But despite RA's success in recent years, Martyn and Dave remain the major players in the club's phoenix-like rise. Put simply, Martyn, does the paperwork, Dave takes care of the players, goalkeeper, Robbie Hawman, produces a matchday programme - a better read than some Football League efforts, and it's included in the £1 admission fee - while Dave's wife, Tracey takes care of selling the programme and raffle tickets.

It wasn't until Martyn, an RA stalwart of 21 years, persuaded Dave, a former Mowden primary school-friend and former professional with Sunderland and Darlington, to jump aboard almost five years ago that RA really began to make progress.

Martyn, 36, says: "I'd seen him walking around the pitch with his little lad so I thought, let's see if he's interested. Knocked on his door, nothing ventured nothing gained I thought."

Martyn's own introduction to the RA back in 1982 was just as unexpected. Watching cricket at Brinkburn Road, which also plays host to the bat and ball game, Martyn explains the beginning of his association with RA, saying: "I was 16 and they came over asked me if I could play because they were short. I kept playing and playing, different people have packed in, ended up being secretary and treasurer, I even picked the side a long time ago. I kept things ticking over in the hope that, one day, someone would appear."

That person appeared in Dave, injury having cut short his career whilst with Bishop Auckland in the mid-90s after a career spent mostly in non-league including an FA Vase win at Wembley with Bridlington in 1993.

"After getting injured I'd been out of the game for a while and I missed it," he admitted. "I'd never thought of getting back in to the game, but getting involved with RA got me out of the house and into football again.

"When I broke my leg, I was just messing about in training on astroturf, my ligaments went, snapped my ankle - the lot really, it was horrific.

"It's not just the 90 minutes you miss, it's the whole day. Going to an away game was like a day trip and that's coming back bit by bit at the RA.

However, the RA revolution was almost derailed just as it left the station. Dave admits a deserved 5-1 thumping at Barnard Castle Glaxo in only his second game almost killed off his enthusiasm, but that day is now looked back on at Brinkburn Road as the turning point in RA's recent history.

"That Glaxo game was the turning point" states Dave. "I could've picked my bag up and walked away. It wasn't just that we'd been beaten by Glaxo, it was because they weren't trying, they didn't seem bothered. I went in the dressing room and went ballistic with them, it was probably the worst I've ever been with them."

Martyn distinctly remembers Dave going ballistic, but recalls the new man in charge making a memorable introduction. He says: "Funny thing was, at Glaxo we had to get changed at the Teesdale Sports Centre where there's fathers and sons who've been swimming or playing squash and they're all in the same changing rooms as us and here's David giving it 'rock-all' to 13 lads, all sat their with their jaws wide open!

"I looked at him and thought 'he's not going to stick this'. I'd seen it all before with people coming in to help out, but then over the next month, because he knows a lot of people in football, a centre-half appeared, then a goalkeeper, then a midfielder, and it just went on from there."

The job satisfaction that a two-man team brings may be huge, Martyn and Dave aren't afraid to admit that a little assistance wouldn't go amiss.

Fellow high-flyers, North Shields, have a committee numbering around 15, estimates Dave, and if the Northern League dream is to be realised, more hands to the pump would be made most welcome.

"Everyone who used to play for us has said they'd come back to help pick the side," says Martyn. "We don't need people to help pick the side, we need people to look after the away side, sort the officials out, do the raffle, make sure the doors are all locked at the end of the day. At the moment we're doing everything. There must be some people out there who enjoy football who would like to help out.

"It's not a problem being just us two, but it would help having a few more. Before we played at home against Birtley a few weeks ago I got a phone call from their kitman...I thought, kitman? And there's me thinking one of us is going to have to get the nets up soon because it's getting on a bit.

"Mind you, we lost three games in a row in September do if we did have a committee they might have sacked us by now!"

Although the Wearside League is not the most prestigious on earth, it marks a significant change for Darlington RA, as Martyn explains: "Every club we go to there'll be someone selling tickets, someone selling programmes, they'll have somebody for every job.

"It is hard but we wouldn't do it if we didn't enjoy it. He couldn't do it without me and I couldn't do it without him."