SO a new season has begun.

New hopes, new kits, new teams and new resolutions not to go out the night before a game to be broken.

Fresh players have arrived in the league while others may have packed in over the summer - their partners nagging them to stop perhaps, or their dodgy knees demanding it. But alas, King of the Wing returns for another season, stuck rigidly to the left hand side of the page, rather like my playing style.

The column will follow the fortunes of Division Two new boys RAC, who I play for, as well as casting an eye over other events in The Northern Echo Darlington Sunday Invitation League. You're all welcome to e-mail in with stories, notices and abuse too.

IT HAS not been a good few weeks for RAC in Darlington after they announced they would be closing their branch in the town. Thankfully, the football team which bears their name enjoyed a better summer.

Not that we want to carry their name, but FA rules mean a team can't change its name once it has been registered however, we have abandoned plans to print their logo on our shirts.

We went unbeaten throughout pre-season, beating Ferryhill Rangers 3-2, demolishing Brown Trout 5-0 and then thumping First Division Spraire RA 4-1. We ended pre-season with a 2-2 draw against newcomers DfES Feedback, a team who really should be good if they're from the Department for Education and Skills - luckily, they appear to be so. As for the Feedback part of the name, it must be those all-green kits they were wearing on Sunday - it looked like somebody had feedbacked all over them.

LAST week we played our first league game and contrived to lose 5-3 to AFC Brinkburn despite leading 3-1 at one point and missing a couple of good chances to make it four.

Already the difference in divisions is clear but we acquitted ourselves well and our new signings impressed. It was clear that we had a better class of player this year when recentlyacquired midfielder Andrew Mackintosh was spotted in members-only Atlantic recently - normally our lads prefer the less sophisticated surroundings of Escapades, Routes and Tanners.

There's a new manager too, with Chris Johnson quitting after we scraped into Division Two by virtue of finishing fifth and a couple of clubs dropping out of the league. The new man at the helm is John Wilde; a chubby chap who occasionally plays upfront, and be warned: his appetite is huge. . . for results, of course.

SPEAKING of clubs dropping out of the league, the football world was rocked on the eve of the season when runaway champions Peppers DRSM - the league's equivalent of Chelsea with their big name signings - and Newton Aycliffe SC both decided to call it a day.

The likes of Garry Barnes and Michael Carter will be a big loss to the league. Nonetheless, it does mean there are now several stars drifting around looking for a club - I don't suppose any of them fancy donning the dark blue, sponsorless shirts of RAC do they?

Published: 26/08/2005