Darlington and Scarborough Athletic have both been charged with misconduct by the Football Association following alleged abuse of a female match official by a fan during Quakers’ win at the Flamingo Land Stadium on January 2.

The 5-2 victory was blighted by comments allegedly directed at assistant referee Emily Carney.

During the first half Carney was running the line directly in front of the 820 travelling Darlington fans, and she briefly interrupted play to speak to the match referee, Dean Watson.

Play resumed, but at half-time a message was twice read out via the public address system, asking “supporters of both sides” to refrain from using misogynistic and abusive language.

Carney swapped sides during the break, which would not normally happen, meaning she started the second half running the line in front of Scarborough’s supporters.

However, nine minutes in the second half, moments after Darlington went 3-0 up, Carney had another conversation with Watson and play was delayed again, this time for almost 40 minutes.

Darlington later issued an appeal for witnesses following an allegation of “misogynistic remarks” from the visitors’ section.

Today, Quakers have published a statement about being charged, saying:

“The club has been charged by the Football Association with misconduct at the Scarborough v Darlington game on 2nd January.

“The letter from the FA reads as follows: "You are hereby charged with misconduct for a breaches of FA Rule E21.4 in respect of the above fixture. It is alleged that during the fixture Darlington FC failed to ensure that its spectators, and all persons purporting to be its supporters or followers, conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and failed to ensure those persons did not use words or otherwise behave in an improper and/or offensive and/or abusive and/or insulting manner with either express or implied reference to gender."

“We are now in correspondence with the FA, and are awaiting their decision in the next few weeks.

“We will update everyone when the hearing has taken place.”

Scarborough have also been charged, and their statement reads:

“Following the game on 02 January against Darlington FC at the Flamingo Land Stadium, we have been charged with a Breach of FA Rule E21.4 for Crowd Control with specific reference to the below: “It is alleged that during the fixture; "Scarborough Athletic FC failed to ensure that its spectators, and all persons purporting to be its supporters or followers, conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and failed to ensure those persons did not use words or otherwise behave in an improper and/or offensive and/or abusive and/or insulting manner with either express or implied reference to gender".

“We have received an extension to the initial deadline to respond to the charge, given the significant amount of evidence provided and will respond accordingly.

“Once we have received a decision from the FA we will update supporters.”