Darlington Railway Athletic Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. They are currently members of the and play at Brinkburn Road.

History

The club was formed after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and initially played in the Darlington & District League.History
Darlington Railway Athletic F.C. They joined the Northern League in 1919, but left at the end of the 1924–25 season after finishing second-from-bottom, returning to the Darlington & District League. They were league champions in 1932–33 and 1963–64, and League Cup winners in 1950–51.Darlington Railway Athletic
Northern League They did the double of league and League Cup in 1967–68. The club subsequently joined the

Teesside Football League The Teesside Football League was a football competition based in northern England. Established in 1891, it was dissolved in 2017 when it merged with the Eskvale & Cleveland League to form the North Riding Football League. At the end of its exis ...

.Teesside League 1919-1978
Non-League Matters In 1969–70 the club won the North Riding Cup. They finished bottom of the Teesside League in 1986–87, but were runners-up in 1988–89.
Non-League Matters In 1990 the club joined Division Two of the

Wearside League The Wearside Football League is a non-league football competition based in northern England. It consists of three divisions which sits at steps 7 to 9 of the National League System (levels 11 to 13 of the Football pyramid) and is a feeder to the ...

. A third-place finish in their first season saw them promoted to Division One, but they folded at the end of the 1991–92 season. After reforming, the club rejoined the Darlington & District League, winning it in 1998–99. They subsequently transferred to the Auckland & District League, which they won in 2000–01. The club were then promoted to the Wearside League, which was now operating with a single division. They won the League Cup in 2002–03, and were league champions in 2004–05, earning promotion to Division Two of the Northern League. Their first season in Division Two saw them finish third, earning promotion to Division One. However, they finished bottom of Division One in 2006–07 and were relegated back to Division Two. In 2017–18 the club finished second-from-bottom of Division Two and were relegated to the

Season-by-season

Honours

*Wearside League **Champions 2004–05 **League Cup winners 2002–03 *Auckland & District League **Champions 2000–01 *Darlington & District League **Champions 1932–33, 1963–64, 1967–68, 1998–99 **League Cup winners 1950–51, 1967–68 *Durham Amateur Cup **Winners 1977–75 *Sunderland Shipowners Cup **Winners 2004–05 *North Riding Cup **Winners 1969–70

Records

*Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

performance: Preliminary round, 2007–08 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

performance: Second round, 1978–79 *Biggest home win: 11–1 vs Glaxo, 6 January 2001; 11–1 vs Ferryhill Athletic, 2 April 2005 *Biggest away win: 11–1 vs Byers Green 20 November 1999; 11–1 vs Wearhead United 28 October 2000 *Heaviest home defeat: 1–7 vs

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...

23 January 2010 *Heaviest away defeat: 1–9 vs Morpeth Town 5 January 2013 *Record attendance: 585 vs

Darlington 1883 Darlington Football Club is an association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, England. As of the 2024-25 season, the team competes in the National League North, at the sixth level of English football. The club was founded in 188 ...

, friendly, 7 August 2012

References

External links