Darlington endured an absolute nightmare of a season in which they nearly went out of business but live on despite all that happened to them. They will be playing in a lower level next season though after their spirited battle against relegation proved in vain. It was all so different at the start of the season when Mark Cooper's men were coming off an FA Trophy victory and were aiming for a promotion push. Cooper, a successful manager at this level and one who plied his trade in the Championship for a while, seemed unable to find his best 11 at the start of the season and his constant chopping and changing damaged the confidence of the squad and soon the cracks started to appear. The midfield was lacking enterprise while Liam Hatch looked more like a typical centre-forward lump rather than an accomplished target man. Comprehensive home defeats against Mansfield and Southport at home along with dreadful away displays at Bath City and Braintree made trigger-happy chairman Raj Singh to pull the trigger by late October when he fired Cooper and announced that he will stop the funding of the club. Wages were stopped and soon the most valuable members of the squad were shifted. Academy coach Craig Liddle was put in charge for the immediate future and stayed on for the rest of the season. He initially managed to galvanise the squad and inspired some very good performances like in the 3:1 win at Ebbsfleet and the 2:0 win over Cambridge. At that stage one loss in eight games revived the talk of a play-off charge but then the Singh pulled the plug for good and the club entered administration in the early days of 2012. The ten-point deduction along with the departure of key players like Jamie Chandler and Sam Russell hit the Quakers badly and at one point they were minutes away from being liquidated by the administrator before local businessmen found the funds needed to keep the club running for the rest of the season. It was a losing battle against the odds despite Liddle trying his harder to get the best out of a group of young and inexperience players and Darlo went on a 19-game run without a victory until the final day of the season. They came close to wins against Luton and Grimsby at home but were porous at the back and relegation was all but confirmed on Easter in painful manner after a 5:0 loss at Lincoln. Now uncertainty reigns over as Darlo are to move to a new smaller stadium but it is not clear in which division they will play and who will provide the funds to keep them alive.
