Darlington RA have appealed to local fans to come along and support them as they enjoy their best season for several years.

The RA have been one of the surprise packages of this second division season, playing some bright football along the way. They finished sixth from bottom last season, but with the addition of some new players, they’re challenging at the other end of the table this season, and on Saturday they have a chance of some FA Vase glory against fellow second division side Gillford Park in the first round proper.

And now they’re appealing for more fans to come along today and in the future, to enjoy the Northern League experience, and help cheer them into the second round of the national competition, that was won last season by another Northern League club, Whitley Bay.

Secretary Chris Griffin said: “With Darlington being away today in the Conference, then we’re hoping that some of their fans will come along and watch us instead.

“We’re having our best season for five years. We’ve struggled in recent years, but now we’re playing some really good football, and we’re winning games.

“There are lots of local lads in the team, who have proved that they can play at this standard of football. Players like Phil Pentony, Steve Cheeseman and Mike Barnett have done well for us this season.

“Our management team of Nick Harrison and Jamie Smith have also learned a lot from their first season, and now they’ve put together a very good team, which is capable of challenging for promotion. The second division of the Northern League is a very good standard, and there have been some entertaining games this season. It was only a couple of weeks ago when there was a 6-5, and at the start of the season there was a 5-5 – although if we’d been involved in a game like that, I don’t know how Jamie and Nick would have felt though!”

There’s nothing like a tie in a national cup competition to inject some fever in the locality, and Griffin hopes that more Darlington people will cheer them into the second round for the first time since 1978, when they lost to Whickham.

“Our recent Vase record has been nothing to shout home about,” he said. “Before this season, we’d lost in our first game in each of the previous four seasons. We won at Esh Winning in the last round, and obviously now we want to sample more of the glory that goes with a run in a national cup competition.

“We’re having a much better season in the league, and we’d love to have a good run in the Vase to go with it.”