Saturday saw the 100th Darlington game at their relatively new stadium which was also its first under the name of the Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena.

As Quakers beat Lincoln City 2-0 and maintained their position as unbeaten league leaders, the sponsors picked a good day to show their backing - just a shame so many of the town's football fans didn't do likewise.

Prior to Saturday's victory, Darlington sat at the top of the League Two table and had yet to lose a match, other than in the Carling Cup, narrowly, to Championship opposition.

Given the club's less than successful history one might assume fans would be eager to see, for once, a successful side. But a crowd of just 4,075 was frankly abysmal.

Despite picking four points from consecutive away games since the previous home match with Notts County (attendance 3,763, visiting fans 341), Saturday's crowd of 4,075 (including 412 from Lincoln), constituted an increase of just 241 home supporters.

Chairman George Houghton must be wondering what he has to do next to bring in the crowds.

He has introduced one of, if not the, biggest budgets in the division and in return he is rewarded with the, current, top team but only the 14th, on average, highest crowds in the division.

Back in the Arena's debut season, 2003/04, the average was over 5,000 and only on four occasions did crowds dip below 4,075.

Since then however, averages have steadily slipped. Last season it was down to 3,849 and only six league games attracted attendances of more than 4,000.

But surely that trend will be bucked if Darlington can maintain this momentum.

The indications are the team is to enjoy its best season in some years but, because of past failures, there are no doubt a sceptical few who will take some persuading before heading back.

In the last 20 seasons there have been two promotions and two play-off seasons but many more false dawns and broken dreams.

No matter how much money Houghton throws at Darlington, nobody can guarantee promotion but being unbeaten over the first six games and being table-toppers is about as good as it gets right now.

However, maybe it is for the best that the crowds do not increase.

Of the 100 games played at the ground, seven have attracted crowds of 6,000 or more. And Darlington did not win any of those games. Or even score.

So perhaps the message to the stay away fans should be: stay away!