THE recent events at Bristol Rovers and Darlington brought home just how much things can change in football.
It doesn’t seem two minutes since we were taking on our old rivals Rovers in the 1995 League I play-off final at Wembley.
And we had two tight clashes with them as recently as last season, when each side won 1-0 at the other’s ground.
Rovers, having parted company with two managers in Paul Trollope and Dave Penney during last season, ended up being relegated.
And they are currently a little too close to the League II drop zone for comfort, hence another change of manager, with Mark McGhee coming in to replace Paul Buckle, who has been unable to recreate the success he had at Torquay.
McGhee has a huge amount of experience, and hopefully will be able to lead Rovers away from the danger zone.
It would be a big shame to see them go the same way as Mansfield, the side we beat in the 2004 League II play-off final, and end up in the Conference.
Mind you, retaining Conference status would be great news for the fans of Darlington, who came perilously close to going out of existence last week.
The 128-year-old club, who have £1.8m worth of debts and are in administration for the third time in 10 years, are still not out of the woods by a long chalk.
But the dramatic rescue which came as the Quakers were about to be closed down for good means there is a little more time to keep them afloat.
Darlington have got a fantastic stadium, and I have good memories of the place, having scored there when we won 1-0 back in that 2003-04 promotion campaign.
It’s better than a lot of grounds in League I and II and it would be a huge shame if there was no club playing there.
I had an interesting chat with Chris Atkinson, our promising young midfielder who was on loan at Darlington earlier this season.
Because he knows a lot of the people involved, the recent developments at the club will have brought home to him just how precarious a business professional football can be.
Going to another club often shows you how good things are at your own, and I’m sure the experience Chris gained there will stand him in good stead.