DARLINGTON Football Club was plunged into crisis last night after an extraordinary attack by the chairman's wife on players, fans and the media.

Susan Reynolds prompted a mass walkout by the entire team when she even went so far as to suggest that they had thrown games.

And chairman George Reynolds threatened to walk away from the Quakers and turn the club's new 25,000 all-seater stadium into a "bullring".

Last night, senior players were discussing their options as manager Tommy Taylor tried desperately to stop the team disintegrating.

As talks went on long into the night, Mr Reynolds insisted: "I won't step down". But fans were still left wondering what the future holds for the 119 year old club.

The club - nicknamed the Quakers after the Society of Friends - had never seen such scenes. Nor had professional football.

Hundreds of fans packed the public meeting to hear the multi-millionaire, who saved the club from bankruptcy, explain a string of poor results by the team.

Instead the meeting descended into chaos when Mr Reynolds' wife Susan launched an unprecedented attack.

Reading from a prepared script she attacked the media for running lurid stories about her safecracker husband's "dodgy past" and concentrating on his £200m fortune.

She said that in the club's first season under the Reynolds reign, players and management thought "manna had fallen from heaven" and that it was "going to be like taking candy from a baby".

Players had behaved like superstars and she had seen and heard examples of individual greed of "biblical proportions."

Referring to an unnamed ex-director, she said he believed he was "bigger than God" and said he had stabbed her husband in the back "like Judas".

She also singled out former manager David Hodgson for criticism - despite his efforts to win the club promotion which ended in noble failure in a close fought promotion play-off against Peterborough.

Mrs Reynolds said she felt "duped at every twist and turn" by him, saying that if she added up what he had cost the club she would not be responsible for her actions.

She also poured scorn on a small section of the fans who, she said, had abused and spat at the couple, issued threats and poured paint on their car.

But the final straw came when she addressed the players themselves.

Some, she said, had found a new lease of life in the final part of the season to bolster demands for excessive wages.

Then she made reference to the poor performance at home to Torquay last Saturday, adding: "It isn't unknown for games to be thrown deliberately at this time of the year, by way of favours."

At that point the players - who had been ordered to attend by the chairman and had been sitting in stunned silence - walked out and the room erupted with howls of protest.

They were followed by Mr and Mrs Reynolds. It was left to beleaguered manager Tommy Taylor to try to defend both the players and his chairman.

In a masterpiece of understatement, he said: "I'm a bit upset at what the chairman's wife has had to say for the players. I don't think any professional player goes out on the field to have a bad day."

The extraordinary scenes have left the Quakers on the rack. A poor season has left the club in mid-table struggling to find the form necessary to mount a push for the promotion play-off places.

After last night's comments it was unclear if the players would even be prepared to turn out for tomorrow's away match against Exeter.

PR director Luke Raine tried to calm the crowd and Mr Reynolds returned, on his own, to face the fans.

He said: "How do you expect me to support a club like this if my wife's beginning to hate it?

"The position is, do we move ahead with this club, or do we close it?"

He added: "To me ,whether you believe me or not, don't get the idea that I won't walk away. I would."

And he said: "I've done it before in the past, I've walked away from things. I walked away from George Reynolds UK last week and lost £50m. Yes I would walk away."

Mr Reynolds threatened to turn the new stadium into "a bullring", and when a fan asked directly if he intended to walk away, he said: "I've no intention of pulling out of the club, but I think you've put the nail in the coffin in it tonight."

Later in the evening, Mr Reynolds appeared to calm down and assured fans that he had no intention of parting with the club.

Manager Tommy Taylor, who repeated his statement that no player would throw a game, also defended Mrs Reynolds, adding: "Susan was trying to put her point of view across and it didn't come across as well as she would have liked to and so she had to leave the room."

Former manager David Hodgson said last night: "I'm not getting involved, it's history."

Club captain Craig Liddle last night insisted the players would play in the next game

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