DARLINGTON midfielder Mark Ford has called on Susan Reynolds to come clean as the fall-out from last week's fans forum continues.

At the Feethams meeting on Thursday night, Mrs Reynolds claimed it "isn't unknown for games to be thrown deliberately".

That comment led to the players walking out of the meeting and although Mrs Reynolds insisted in Tuesday's Northern Echo that she didn't intend to label the players cheats, an uneasy truce remains and now Ford wants her to clarify her thoughts.

Ford, who has made 28 appearances this season and joined Quakers in February 2001 from Torquay after starting his career with Leeds, insisted: "I'd like her to come out and say it, or the chairman to come out, because then we would all know where we stand.

"I'd like to know which players she meant - there's a lot of people putting two and two together at the moment.''

And while chairman George Reynolds had demanded his players apologise for insulting his wife as they walked out, Ford insisted an apology won't be forthcoming.

He said: "I don't feel there's anything to apologise for. If people think we've done something wrong or have something to apologise for, that's fair enough, but as a bunch of players we think we were right to walk out of that meeting because it was a disgrace.

"We don't expect an apology from them because that's not the way they work, but there's absolutely no way the lads at this football club will be apologising.

"You can't ignore what's been said. It's a disgrace what's been said about the players at this club.''

Tuesday's 1-0 defeat by Macclesfield was Quakers' first game at Feethams since the row erupted. Mr Reynolds' arrival was greeted with a muted response from the 2,729 fans - the lowest attendance at Feethams this season.

But the players were given a rousing reception from the supporters and Ford believes the events of the last seven days have brought his teammates closer together.

"We're not happy,'' he said. "We're sticking together as a team and it's probably made us stronger as a bunch of lads.

"We've always got on well anyway as a team, but as a club we're not close at all at this moment.

"The fans have been good but they can only take so many bad results. You can see the problems we've got; we've got no forwards and nobody is going to come in.

"Unfortunately for the fans, they're going to have to grin and bear it along with the players, because we're frustrated as well.''

Meanwhile, Glenn Naylor is on course to make a return to the side before the end of the season - almost 12 months since his last first-team appearance.

After enduring months of intensive rehabilitation to recover from a career-threatening cruciate knee ligament injury, the 29-year-old is being gradually eased back into the team.

He was an unused substitute on Tuesday and took part in a practice match in training yesterday.

Assistant manager Mick Tait is delighted with Naylor's progress, and explained how the last hurdle on Naylor's road to recovery is purely psychological.

"His knee is OK, that's not a problem, but he just needs to be confident about it," said Tait, who admitted Naylor, who sustained the injury on the last day of last season, would have only come off the bench on Tuesday had Darlington been winning.

"He needs to know he'll be OK and he'll get to that stage once he gets a few games under his belt.

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