After signing for his hometown club at the third attempt, Alan White admits that playing for Darlington will fulfil a lifelong ambition.

Twice previously during his career the centre-back had hoped to join Quakers, only to see the deal fall through.

But manager Dave Penney has succeeded in bringing White to the club on a two-year deal after leaving Notts County, for whom he scored a winning goal at the 96.6TFM Arena this season.

White's return to the North-East completes a homecoming ten years after leaving the region for Luton Town after his release by Middlesbrough.

David Hodgson twice tried and failed to sign White, 31, the most recent occasion being last summer, while White says former chairman George Reynolds scuppered a deal in 2000.

"I left Middlesbrough in 1997 and I've not been anywhere near the North-East since really.

" It's one of those things, you always fancy playing for your hometown club eventually, but it never seemed to happen," said White, who finished the season with a loan spell at Peterborough United.

"There's been a couple of occasions that it almost happened but because of certain circumstances it didn't, but now I've signed and I'm quite excited about it.

"When I left Luton in 2000 I spoke to David Hodgson but what I spoke to him about and what I spoke to George Reynolds about were two different things.

"I agreed a contract with Hodgson, but then I got a phone call from the chairman telling me that Hodgson was wrong and that I was going to get paid half what I'd been offered by Hodgson, which, obviously, I couldn't accept.

"The second time I nearly signed was last year when Hodgson said he couldn't offer me anything until he got decisions from Shelton Martis and Matt Clarke.

"He was sound with me, he just said 'if you can wait, great, if you can't, I'll understand'. I left it as long as I could but unfortunately Martis and Clarke hadn't sorted themselves out so I had to sign for someone else quickly otherwise I might not have got a club at all."

He eventually opted for Notts County, having spent the year previously at Boston United and before that was 12-month spell at Leyton Orient.

He is now close to 400 first team appearances and while Penney wants the experienced defender to be the first of his summer signings, White admits that the opportunity to wear Darlington's black and white hoops was too good an opportunity to ignore.

He said: "He didn't have to say much to get me to sign to be honest. It's been an ambition of mine to play for Darlington - everyone wants to play for their hometown club.

"Dave Penney told me what his plans are, that he's signing some new players and that the chairman has given him a bit of money to sign players.

"He didn't really have to sell it to me, he just told me the ambition that the chairman has got and I couldn't turn it down."