Darlington keeper Chris Porter hit the headlines in all the national newspapers when fans offered to pay his wages. Now he wants to repay those generous supporters.

The best way to do that will be to help Darlington remain unbeaten for the rest of the season, something he has assisted in quite ably during this three games so far.

The former Sunderland trainee signed for the Quakers on the eve of the home match with Swansea a fortnight ago. Darlington have since won twice and drawn one with Porter keeping two clean sheets, while the victories were the club's only three-point hauls in the last 12 matches.

It's certainly not been a bad start to the second stint at Darlington for Porter, whose Quakers debut against Swansea was also his first game in professional football at the age of 22.

Days later he was in the national spotlight as fans pledged around £1,000 to cover his wages until the end of the season until chairman George Reynolds stepped in and gave the keeper a contract.

Despite the fact their money was not needed, Porter admits he was overwhelmed by the supporters' gesture, which was organised by web-site Darlo Uncovered (www.darlofc.co.uk) after manager Tommy Taylor had appealed for a sponsor.

"It was fantastic, I appreciate it a lot," said Porter. "My mother showed me a page on the internet where there was a list of names of the people who were going to pay.

"It was excellent. I never expected anything like that but the chairman has sorted everything out now."

The fans' whip-round was just the latest in an unusual run of events which have littered Porter's career, which has had more ups and downs than most veteran keepers have endured.

After spending 18 months at Sunderland without making a first-team appearance, the Middlesbrough-born shot-stopper arrived at Feethams in March 2000 for a short-spell as back-up, which included the play-off final at Wembley.

He then moved on to Hartlepool in September of that year before another change of gear took him to Southend two months later.

By last April, when he had still not made his debut, he decided he'd had enough of reserve football, so he fled the country along with two former Darlington YTS players - Michael Carter and Michael Bowes.

The trio signed for a less-than-average side in Iceland and all three got off to a promising beginning before the two outfield players became reserve players and Porter broke his arm, sidelining him until last Christmas.

Since then he has turned out in non-League football and also had a spell at Chesterfield.

"I'd like to play here next season, I want a contract, definitely,'' he admitted. "It would be nice to settle somewhere and have a run in the first team because I've been here, there and everywhere.

"The best thing I can do is play my best and make sure we don't lose another game, starting at Rochdale."

Read more about Sunderland here.