A TEAM ethic has played a key role in Darlington’s success, believes manager Martin Gray, who paid tribute to everyone he feels has contributed towards promotion.

A 2-0 win over Bamber Bridge in Saturday's play-off final sealed elevation to the Evo-Stik Premier Division, meaning Darlington go up alongside Salford City.

Maintaining a strong bond across each of the club’s departments has long been a core component in Gray’s approach, always eager to ensure players, fans and club officials are pulling in the same direction.

And after Saturday’s win, which represented his second promotion in three seasons, he said: “It’s about the team, on and off the pitch, everybody has played a big part.

“It’s quite emotional to think that three years ago we didn’t have a club and now we’ve had three promotions in three seasons.

“I’m really pleased the fans are celebrating, it means so much to me to put smiles back on their faces.

“It has taken a big dent a few years ago to pull everyone together, and I mean everybody. The fans have been brilliant, they back us in their numbers and have done since the start, the players love the support they get.

“Whether you’re a player, whether you’re working on the pitch, putting the programme together or doing a newspaper report, everybody is digging deeper for the club than they ever have before and the players appreciate it.

“The players, the management team, the directors, everyone gives their all and that’s why we’re back and we’re alive now.”

Saturday’s win, against a team that Darlington have now defeated in five successive meetings, came after overcoming a tough first half, Brig missing a number of scoring opportunities.

However, Quakers were fired up at the beginning of the second half with quickfire goals by Nathan Cartman and Graeme Armstrong putting Darlington into a two-goal lead lead that they never looked like relinquishing.

The first came via a Gary Brown throw, the second a Terry Galbraith free-kick, set-pieces again proving to be one of the team’s assets.

“We directed the players at half-time, told them what to focus on,” said Gray. “There was no need to try and win the game in the 46th minute, just make sure you win it over the 90 minutes. I wanted it put to bed before extra-time.

“We got a corner early in the second half and that got us going, it gave us momentum.

“Our set-pieces over the season have been vital and Cartman’s finish was excellent. He’s been under a lot of pressure and he’s stepped up to it.

“He had an assist too, really unselfishly heading the ball back across goal for Armstrong, yet another important goal for Armstrong.

“Those two were a real handful, and we were worthy winners after the second half performance.”

Gray, meanwhile, revelled in having the last laugh at the expense of Darlington’s detractors.

Gray’s side finished second in the league table behind Salford, whose first-place finish was assured when Darlington were held to a draw at Warrington Town last month, a result which came three days after another damaging draw at Lancaster City.

Both results appeared to mean a lot to the North-West teams, but Gray did not identify who his comments were in reference to.

“It would’ve been easy to feel sorry for ourselves at missing out on the title. People were writing us off,” said Gray, who showed sportsmanship when calling Salford’s joint-manager and co-owner Gary Neville to congratulate them soon after Quakers’ draw at Warrington.

“Lots of opposition managers have been very disrespectful to us as a club over the season, wanting us to fail. I’ll have a nice glass of wine tonight on all of those people.

“Why? It’s because we’re Darlington, but the more pressure people put on us the better I want to become. It’s what makes me get out of bed and want to succeed, I want to take the club forward. The players have the same mentality, they buy into what I want.

“A lot of people showed no decency towards us, but there’s also a lot of people with a lot of credibility in this league that have rang me recently to say good luck.”