TO the impartial observer it must be difficult to understand why Darlington is a football club in crisis.

The club sits in mid-table without any danger of being relegated to the Conference and is in no danger of folding because of debts like so many other clubs, some from higher divisions of the football league.

I'm sure that many clubs would willingly swap places with Darlington.

So why the crisis?

I think that the basis of the problem is that most fans only want "jam today" and, unfortunately, when George Reynolds arrived at the club, he not only promised jam today but also the best quality jam within five years.

I believe that, at the time, George - along with a great many of the fans - firmly believed that this was possible.

Consequently, now that the club is still in the Third Division after three years, everyone is looking for someone to blame.

George blames David Hodgson and the players, who he feels were paid too much for non-success in his first season.

The fans blame George for not being willing to buy success.

Thursday night's meeting, which was meant to clear the air, has only helped to fuel the problem to the extent that the club is not only in crisis, but is also at a crossroads.

I believe that the future of Darlington Football Club will depend on what road we choose to take from that crossroads.

Continued confrontation and accusations will only lead to one outcome and that is the demise of the football club.

Everyone needs to calm down, take a deep breath and look to the future, rather than backwards at the last three years and the early hype.

The fans have to accept that George is not going to do an Al Fayed or Jack Walker and buy instant success.

He wants to make the club financially self-sufficient first and believes that this will form the basis for success.

The club can treat the supporters either as customers or as "partners" to future.

If the club chooses the first option then, like in any business, the customers will only buy for as long as they are getting a good product.

If the second option is chosen, then supporters need to be kept informed of the club's plans and not fed hype and PR spin.

The future goals for the club need to be set, published and be realistic. The club needs to be willing to have sensible, intelligent dialogue with its supporters, and to listen to their concerns and ideas.

There will always be hotheads who will protest and demonstrate when things are not going right, but these are outnumbered by the sensible, level-headed and usually quiet fans.

These are willing to help through the not-so-good times, provided that they feel that the club has realistic goals and a plan to achieve them. Darlington has a lot of this type of supporter, and I urge them and the club to work together to achieve what is the dream of all of us, a successful, happy club.

Peter Thorns, chairman

Darlington FC Supporters' Club