George Reynolds: Our position now is better than it was in 1996-97 when we were six off the bottom with 38 players and in 1997-98 when we were fifth from the bottom. Nobody can argue with the facts.

Paul GOUGH: So are you saying that Hodgson did a bad job then?

George Reynolds: Well he hasn't done a good job, has he? With the money he's spent, realistically, we should have been promoted last year. When you look at the money that was chucked out we should never have been at the play-offs really.

Paul GOUGH: What kind of money was he throwing out then?

George Reynolds: Well the money he has thrown out. Consider the bonus structure. If you missed out on all the bonuses you got a bonus. We had seven - appearance fees, clean sheet bonuses, goal scoring bonuses, signing on fees, and additional bonuses.

Paul GOUGH: Do you not have to agree with those bonuses?

George Reynolds: Well I'm glad you asked that because we were brand new in - we didn't know sufficient about football. Realistically, you expect the manager to guide you in the right direction. We were green to it, we only had three hours to save the club, so we went in there and we paid off £5.5m straight away and £150,000-a-month to keep it afloat.

(At this point David Hodgson rings)

David Hodgson: I'm not keen about coming on the radio, I'll come on the radio if I get the same air time as George. It's impossible for me reply in a 30-second radio show to what George is coming out with.

Paul GOUGH: How do you feel about what he is saying?

David Hodgson: Well I don't agree with it.

George Reynolds: Well, what about these contracts - are they right or wrong?

David Hodgson: The contracts are right, because you are reading the figures out but why have the public not been told the salaries these players were on at their previous clubs.

George Reynolds: A lot of them were first division.

David Hodgson: You wanted to go to the Premier Division.

George Reynolds: Yes, but with first division wages we got no result.

David Hodgson: Excuse me, aren't you the chap who actually said that you wanted this type of player at the football club?

George Reynolds: You grossly overpaid them - you went way over the top.

David Hodgson: I'm not having an argument over a radio show. We are bringing Darlington Football Club down again. We are making a laughing stock of the club nine months down the road.

I'm not defending Dave Hodgson, I'm defending the players, who have been absolutely slaughtered in the Press for the past year-and-a-half over salaries. I think it is totally disgraceful anyway. I'll defend why they ended up with those bonuses.

Paul GOUGH: How did you feel working with George? What made you leave?

David Hodgson: It was a multitude of things at the end but I said it was an amazing experience to work with George to start with. The unfortunate thing was football was no longer the issue towards the end of my days at Darlington Football Club. I learnt one hell of a lot of business sense from George and I put that in writing to him, but at the end the football club was no longer going in the direction a football club should have been going in, considering that we were supposed to have been going third, second, first, premier divisions.

George Reynolds: But we didn't with all the money we spent.

David Hodgson: We never spent any money on players