THE great thing about football is that whenever you hit rock bottom, you're never very far away from being back at the top. For every dark day, there is another opportunity in the future to provide a much-needed ray of light.

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In the last three seasons, Darlington Football Club has witnessed enough darkness to send most rational observers into despair, but displaying an irrationality that is surely a characteristic trait of the devoted football fan, a hardy band of believers have refused to throw in the towel.

On Saturday, as their side claimed the FA Trophy in the most dramatic fashion imaginable at Wembley Stadium, they finally received their reward. At last, the bitterness and acrimony could be forgotten.

The despair of administration preventing a promotion campaign under former manager Dave Penney. The embarrassment of crashing out of the Football League last season and finishing some 18 points adrift of safety. The disappointment of failing to qualify for the Blue Square Premier play-offs in the current campaign and suffering defeats to the likes of Hayes & Yeading and Altrincham in the process.

All painful experiences; all significantly soothed by the euphoria of a first piece of silverware since the Fourth Division Championship in 1991.

In their place, a new raft of memories have emerged. Perhaps it is the impromptu sing-song that engulfed The Green Man, the designated pre-match pub for Darlington supporters, in the build-up to Saturday's game?

Maybe it is the unbridled joy that accompanied Chris Senior's 120th-minute winner, with the diminutive substitute soaring to head home the rebound from Tommy Wright's effort that cannoned off the crossbar? Or perhaps it will be the emotional reaction to captain Ian Miller hoisting the gleaming FA Trophy above his head?

Either way, each and every Darlington supporter will have left Wembley with their own indelible image at the forefront of their mind. Amid all the gloom and misery, they were right to keep the faith.

“I think it will mean the world to the fans because they have been through an awful lot,” said manager Mark Cooper. “Hopefully, this is the start of the rebirth of the football club.

“Hopefully, it's the start of something special and it'll set us off to where we should be, which is the Football League.

“It can be a platform to build on for next year, and hopefully it can also draw a line under the past. Everyone involved with Darlington is committed to driving the club forward.”

Saturday's success provided a glorious affirmation of football's ability to create happiness from despair, but it also highlighted the sport's importance in terms of identity and community, factors that have been central to conversations relating to Darlington's continued existence in the last few years.

The arguments are well worn, and have been raised in various quarters, including, on occasion, this newspaper. Do the people of Darlington really want a professional football club? Why does the club matter when it is losing and being relegated out of the league? Why do people such as chairman Raj Singh continue to devote their time and money to keeping it alive?

The answers could be discerned at Wembley at the weekend. Almost 10,000 Darlington fans made the pilgrimage to England's national stadium, one in ten of the town's population. It is valid to question where they have been for the remainder of the campaign, but the fact they travelled at all surely confirms the continued relevance of the Quakers.

That relevance was also apparent in the choruses of 'We love you Darlo' that cascaded from the stands throughout the game, and the George Crosses and Union Jacks with 'Darlington' emblazoned across them that draped over the gangways in Wembley's East Stand.

What else could engender such powerful expressions of civic identity and such heartfelt pride at being from Darlington?

The town council? The indoor market? The Dolphin Centre? Take away Darlington Football Club, and you remove one of the few institutions that bonds the town together and gives it profile and meaning on a national stage.

“Whenever people have talked about the future of the football club, I've always known that there's an interest and support there,” said Singh, who was in the front row of dignitaries as Miller received the FA Trophy after the final whistle. “It's never really been a question of the football club's role within Darlington, because I think we all know how important that is.

“I keep saying that the supporters of this club have been continually kicked in the teeth. They've been promised all sorts of things and those promises have not been delivered.

“I can totally understand the frustration and negativity that goes along with that, but that doesn't mean the support is not out there and it doesn't mean the people of Darlington do not care about their team.

“It was fantastic to see so many of them at Wembley and listen to their singing all the way through the game. That's what being a supporter of a football team is all about.”

That support will be crucial in the weeks and months to come, as Singh and Cooper look to use this weekend's triumph as a springboard to a return to the Football League.

For all that a degree of stability appears to have returned to The Northern Echo Arena, with Cooper confidently predicting that the squad will be strengthened this summer, there will inevitably be difficult times ahead.

Stockport County and Lincoln City will drop into the Blue Square Bet Premier with resources at their disposal, one of Luton Town or AFC Wimbledon will fail to go up via the play-offs, and the likes of Mansfield and Fleetwood are both expected to spend considerable sums of money this summer in an attempt to secure promotion. If anything, next season's Conference could be even more competitive than this.

But at least Darlington will head into the new campaign with some positive momentum, something that has not been the case for a number of years.

And if everything does not go to plan, at least the club's supporters will always be able to remember a sunny afternoon at Wembley. For 120 glorious minutes, the footballing world was theirs.