THE Northern Echo has done its best to support Darlington Football Club’s attempts to find a way out of administration – this time and the time before that.

A successful football club is good for the town, as well as the fans, but the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) that could help that happen makes grim reading if you happen to be a creditor.

Although the club will emerge leaner and fitter from its period of administration, it will come as cold comfort to the companies and organisations, some of them schools and charities, set to lose money on the deal.

Although a CVA offering less than 1p in the pound is about the best anyone could hope for, it still offers a pitiful payback for businesses that stood by the Quakers in tough times.

For some creditors, this is not the first time they have lost out.

Some were left with a pittance the last time the club emerged from a period of administration in 2004.

Everything possible must be done to avoid such hardship being inflicted on local businesses again.

This financial debacle makes it even more imperative that a deal is confirmed to give the club a fighting chance of having a secure future.

Who could blame a company for being cautious about doing business with the Quakers unless there is a fresh approach?

Former chairman George Houghton has agreed a deal with Teesside businessman Raj Singh. It sits with lawyers, waiting to be signed and sealed, but still the subject of behindthe- scenes debate.

The goal-posts must not be moved at the eleventh hour.