His story of how only 9 players turned up to his very first West training session for National League One is now legendary. Four different players turned up for the second session so John reckoned he had 13 in the squad. That never say die attitude has helped keep the club alive.

This summer he has the support of Ince and Connolly in targeting players and bringing them in.

That's in addition to the players who once again fought manfully last season and who improved leaps and bounds in the second half.

Skipper Connolly asked them who was stopping on to help take the club into an era with the new set up at Brinkburn and was delighted with the response.

Big Dan Wright is away to a job in Bracknell and Gareth Kerr has gone to Falcons Academy but Allan Milne could well be stopping. He was offered a trainee managers job with Tesco which could have taken him all over the country but now he's looking to build a career closer to home. All offers welcome!

Fellow unfortunate Mark Thompson will also be back after his recovery from his double broken jaw.

Chris Webb who had an excellent season has also committed himself to the club he's been with since the professional days.

So we start with a decent squad including: Cholmondeley, Cook, Cullinane, Robinson, Geritz, Webb, Davies, Sawyer, Bennett, Tones, Rudd and Hodgson in the pack. In the backs we have Tighe, Thomas, Connolly, Milne, Thompson, Barff and Walton with Cuff and Lassey available when they ae home from University. Similarly we might also see a little of Laycock and Kerr when Falcons and Uni commitments allow.

We need a bigger squad to cover for injuries and suspensions and to give Stabler more options.

Darlington showed us in the County Cup that we are in for another competitive season but Stabler says: "We can and will compete in North Division One. It has been a major achievement to get a side out in the last few years but we have turned that corner. We have a squad of lads who have player their hearts out for the club and they will be raring to go come September but we obviously need some players and we have a few in mind."