THEY say the best things come to those who wait, and 12 months after their promotion hopes were dashed at the hands of a Ramsbottom side aided by some wretched refereeing, Darlington can finally look forward to an Evo-Stik First Division play-off final.

That might seem like small fry when compared to a Division Four title or an FA Trophy success at Wembley, both of which the Quakers have been able to celebrate in the last 25 years, but when you’ve been knocked down to the bottom, you have to take pride in every little step back to the top.

Last night’s victory will mean nothing if Darlington fail to complete their elevation in Saturday’s final with Bamber Bridge, and even then, they will still be two promotions away from a return to the Conference, let alone the Football League.

But after a succession of setbacks, disappointments and near misses – plenty of which have been self-inflicted – Martin Gray’s side can finally achieve something significant in two days time.

That last night’s success meant their fellow North-Easterners, Spennymoor, were left heartbroken was a shame, and on a night that delivered a thrilling advertisement for the region’s non-league scene, Jason Ainsley’s side were able to leave Heritage Park with their heads held high.

Last night’s derby might not have boasted the same profile as a Tyne-Wear affair, but in terms of drama, tension and exciting goalmouth action, it matched anything that Newcastle and Sunderland have served up in recent seasons.

Had Spennymoor full-back Kallum Griffiths scored with a remarkable second-half strike from fully 40 yards, it would also have trumped both Premier League teams’ recent efforts in terms of skill.

As it was, it was left to Darlington substitute David Dowson to settle things with a dramatic 89th-minute strike that squeezed under Spennymoor goalkeeper Gareth Young and sent the bulk of a capacity 1,987 crowd into raptures.

From a Darlington perspective, it meant that some unwelcome déjà vu was avoided. For the second year in a row, the prize for finishing second was a nerve-jangling play-off semi-final. This time around, however, the ending was a happy one.

The presence of Salford City, owned by Gary and Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs, was always going to make topping this season’s First Division a hugely difficult task.

While Salford are owned by a bunch of millionaires, Darlington are owned by a clutch of their fans, yet their Football League pedigree means they remain a hugely powerful force at this level. Having chosen Heritage Park as their temporary park, the club has had to accept that their own heritage is both a blessing and a curse. Perhaps Saturday will help to redress some of the recent wrongs.

For Spennymoor, the last two years have witnessed a period of almost unparalleled success. In May 2013, the club lifted the FA Vase at Wembley and, last season, they topped the Northern League to follow Darlington out of level nine in the football pyramid.

They have played at a higher level before, but that was in the mid-1990s when they existed in a previous guise of Spennymoor United. Now reformed as Town, Spenny have been reborn under the watchful eye of local businessman Brad Groves and the astute management of Ainsley.

At the start of the current campaign, you suspect mid-table stability would have been an acceptable return for a first season in the Evo-Stik. Last night, they found themselves setting their sights higher.

That Darlington stood in their way lent an extra edge to proceedings, and from the earliest moments, tackles flew in, passes were hurried and players from both sides were quick to test the resolve of referee Craig Dean.

There was none of the outright thuggishness that characterised Darlington’s defeat to Ramsbottom 12 months earlier, but Quakers midfielder Leon Scott was fortunate to remain on the field following a poor first-half tackle on Lewis Dodds and Spennymoor’s Paul Johnson might also have gone when he leapt into an opponent close to the touchline moments later.

The first half contained two real moments of quality, the first of which saw Spennymoor midfielder Andrew Stephenson produce some balletic footwork to skip past two opponents in the area, only for his subsequent shot to rattle off the crossbar.

Darlington dominated possession before the break, but struggled to carve out a gilt-edged opportunity before Graeme Armstrong broke the deadlock in stoppage time. The goal owed much to the persistence of full-back Gary Brown, although Armstrong still had to burst beyond two defenders to power a close-range header into the net.

Spennymoor started the second half in the ascendancy and turned the game on its head when Joe Tait prodded home from close range and substitute Michael Roberts drilled home a cracker from the inside-left channel.

Suddenly, history was repeating itself from a Darlington perspective. Nerves were jangling, fears were heightened, but within two minutes, the hosts had levelled through Liam Hatch.

Now, it was all to play for, and while Griffiths struck the bar with his wonder strike, it was to be Dowson who settled things as he struck from just inside the area.

A green flare appeared from nowhere – matching the flair that both sides displayed in the second half – and at the full-time whistle, Darlington boss Gray was on the pitch celebrating in front of the home supporters.

As a player with Sunderland, he was part of a Black Cats squad that travelled to Wembley for an FA Cup final. Yet there he was, manically dancing around as if all his dreams had just come true. He, more than anyone else, had waited a year for that moment.