Unfortunately not, I wasn't good enough for that. When the move to the KC was announced they gave anybody who could get a team together the chance to play at Boothferry Park once all City's games had finished. On the official messageboard they got one together and asked the club to put a staff side out against them not really expecting it but the club went for it. At some point between then and the game I started using that messageboard and got invited onto the team.
The "staff" side they put together was meant to have AP and Peter Taylor in it but on the night they were signing Danny Allsopp so they ended up with Sam Sharman, Pete Skipper, the tall guy who works in Tiger Leisure that used to be in the youth team, Alex Burgess, Billy Russell, Neil Mann, Max Nicholson (ex Scunny, Donny, Hereford), Steve Butler (first team coach that played a few friendlies), Rob Smith, and Simon Russell and a few others. And Simon Russell was playing because he'd been suspended for 3 games so Billy Russell wanted him to have a run out before his next game.
We got absolutely battered that game, but there's a few good memories, as a striker slide tackling Manny and not committing a foul or knackering his knee. That fixture has been played ever year since then, although maybe not 2010 it was I think 5-2 to the fans after the 2009 game, and this year's hasn't been arranged yet. Only the first 2 were at BP, which is a shame because that's the only 2 the fans have lost as far as I know, but that 2nd game I played at BP was the last fixture ever played there that involved a side officially representing the club. So forget Darlington, the club won a trophy with a comfortable victory in their final game there (which is better than the first team or reserves managed in their last games).
