By Michael Ramsay

JANUARY 9, 1965. This was the date that a Darlington side teetering on the brink of slipping out of the Football League welcomed an Arsenal side to Feethams.

Having slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Barrow the previous Saturday, even the most optimistic Quakers supporter would have felt a slight trepidation at facing the Gunners.

In the FA Cup, there is always the chance of an upset, but after arriving on a cold morning in the North-East, Arsenal easily dismantled their fourth-division opponents to stride into the next round of the FA Cup.

They didn’t even need to break sweat, and evidently hadn’t been forwarded the script. With the ‘magic’ of the cup competition seemingly lost on the Highbury outfit, they wasted no time in demonstrating their superiority over their inferior opponents. Despite Darlington’s best efforts, this was an encounter that Goliath would relish.

The prospect of overturning their top-flight opponents very quickly proved to be a pipe-dream, with first-half goals from George Armstrong and John Radford quelling the passion of a fervent 20,000 crowd. Both goals owed much to the accuracy of George Eastham, the midfielder who carved through the porous Darlington defence with two incisive through-balls.

The occasion had got to the Darlington side in the first half. Offering their top-flight opponents far too much respect, they allowed the Gunners to play their natural and fluid game, while only mustering one half-chance of their own via a Brian Conlon header. A muted crowd greeted the beaten underdogs at the start of the second half, as the reality of a return to less glamorous duels with Wrexham and Chester sunk in.

Following the languid showing in the first half, a Gunners’ onslaught was likely. A day that had begun with hope was fast descending into a nightmare for the home crowd, as they braced themselves for the worst.

To the credit of manager Lol Morgan, however, the Division Four unit emerged with more grit and determination, finally showing the necessary temerity to stand up to their north London opponents. While the Gunners’ attacking threats proved a menace, the Quakers’ organisation restricted the space that had been afforded to them in the first half. Tony Burns was even forced into his first meaningful save of the afternoon when he batted away a fierce drive from Darlington’s Jimmy Lawton.

For the 20,000 packed inside the arena, it was a case of what might have been had their side approached the encounter in the same vain from the off, instead of standing off the Gunners like a pack of awe-struck schoolboys waiting for autographs.

Still, this is not an encounter that has been remembered as the time when Arsenal missed a host of first-half opportunities that could have potentially embarrassed a lower-league opponent. Darlington’s breathing space between themselves and non-league football was thin, so while hosting the Gunners and keeping them to just two goals may not have been a tale of David and Goliath proportions, it remains a tale that is worth retelling.