"Without the fans, the game is nothing.  What would be the point?  That passion, that commitment, that devotion.  It cannot be bought and it cannot be cashed in.  It needs to be rewarded, invested in and nurtured" 

Sir Alex Ferguson

Contact the Darlington Disabled Supporters Group

Disabled fans, tell us what you want

BY PAUL HODGSON, Darlington Disabled Supporters' Group

Up until now a Supporters' Trust sub-group has been involved with the task of creating the Darlington Disabled Supporters' Group.

But to take it further we need to bring in various parties who we feel have an important role to play in the group.  The aims of the group are:

• To provide a focal point for disability issues both at home and away fixtures
   
• Encourage greater disabled supporters attendance at Darlo games.

We have some fantastic facilities for them which we should rightly boast of thus improving a generally neglected area of fan base.

In the longer term, we would also like to see Darlington FC become one of the first professional teams in the country to have its own powerchair football team and possibly even provide other leisure facilities for disabled people within the community.

The club last year won an award from Darlington Association on Disability (DAD) for its facilities for disabled people, the award was a great merit to the club but ironically until the DSG’s formation we were the only north east club not to have a disabled group associated to it.

We are currently in consultation with the club who fully support the initiative and are keen to see it fully up and running

We are also in contact with potential partners within the community to come on board for what can only be a positive move for the Football Club.

One interesting and much valued partner has been Hartlepool United Disabled Supporters Association (HUDSA), who have provided, and continue to provide, fantastic help to us.

We hope to launch the group officially shortly before the Hartlepool home fixture and will be using the goodwill generated between the two sets of fans on this initiative as a way of positively promoting the forthcoming derby fixture.

HUDSA have a fantastic organisation in place yet it was created despite an initially arms-length attitude from their club.

We go into creation with our club fully supportive of its formation and fully appreciative of meeting the needs of disabled supporters that in itself is as good a starting point as we can hope for.

But to me, to most important people are you, the disabled fans of Darlington , do you want accessible transport to away games? What do you want from the group? Contact the group or the club and between us we will endeavour to provide it.

Call the DSG on 0709 287 0189

Contact Us

•           By Email -

•                     By Telephone - 0709 287 0189 (24 hours)

If you would like to make a donation, click the button below:

Click the button below to pay £100 for Life Membership of the Darlington Supporters' Trust

We look forward to talking and working with you for Disabled Football Fans, their families and Carers

The Darlington Supporters Trust (Disabled Supporters Group) is a member of NADS, the National Association for Disabled Supporters which was set up to improve facilities for disabled fans across the nation. 

To visit the NADS website, click here

 NADS - Informing, Uniting, Supporting