ALAN WHITE has aimed a parting shot at Darlington’s administrators who he blames for forcing him to quit his hometown club.

The defender signed for Luton Town this week – the fifth player to leave Quakers this summer with more likely to follow.

But White says he would have stayed had administrators Brackenbury, Clark & Co found a buyer for the club sooner.

White said: “A lot of the lads might not have made the decisions they’ve made if there’d been better communication between the administrators and the players.

“We had the Professional Footballers’ Association come to see us but we had no communication with the administrators at all apart from the letter that got sent out saying you can leave.

“It’s the uncertainty that has pushed a lot of lads into arranging moves.

“What they haven’t done is keep a line of communication open with the press and with the players. That would have been the best way to deal with the situation to keep everyone informed so there would have been no rumour mill.

“The fans are as annoyed as the players because they haven’t been told what’s going on either. Most of the lads didn’t want to leave but everything’s been up in the air.

“Ideally I’d like to have stayed at Darlington but I couldn’t afford to wait until the end of July – maybe by then the club could’ve been in liquidation and I might not have been paid for six months.”

Singh is now in talks with former chairman George Houghton about the sale of the club and a power-sharing deal on the land and stadium.

But Singh’s arrival has come too late to prevent a player exodus. Rob Purdie, Ricky Ravenhill, Ryan Valentine and Jason Kennedy have all joined new clubs, while both Neil Austin and Pawel Abbott are expected to leave soon.

White added: “Initially the administrators said ‘everyone can leave, if you can get a club then we want rid of you’. We all arranged moves to other clubs, and then the administrators turned around and said ‘actually we don’t want everyone to leave now’.

“So there’s been confusion, but eventually they changed their minds again.

“All of a sudden a new owner and new manager came in. It would’ve been nice if that had happened about six weeks ago because I’d already agreed to go to Luton.

“I got a letter from the PFA saying that Singh’s second offer had been turned down and that Houghton might be carrying on at the club but only temporary.

“I couldn’t stay on that basis because the club have been back in administration by Christmas.

“About a week later we heard Singh was definitely coming in but by that point I’d had a good offer from Luton and Ricky (Ravenhill), Jason (Kennedy) and Rob (Purdie) had already agreed to go to other clubs.”

At Luton White will be aiming to help return the club to the Football League following their relegation to the Blue Square Premier.

Should they succeed White would be celebrating a first promotion. But he wishes it had come with Quakers.

“We had a good bunch of lads, a good squad, a good manager, a great ground and great training facilities,” he said.

“Why would I have wanted to leave Darlo if everything had been sorted?

“Thankfully the club is going to be okay but it’s frustrating because from being in a good position in mid-February it’s all gone wrong.

“The manager has left, the coach has left and most of the best players have left.

“It’s just a shame I’ve ended up leaving Darlington and that’s only happened because of the shambles that has gone on these last few months.”