If your team is struggling then rarely is everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, and Darlington is nothing like a church service.
There are so many conflicting messages coming out of The Darlington Arena that it is hard to know what song to listen to, but the unequivocal fact is that Colin Todd has left.
The Todd era lasted precisely nine league games after he arrived in the summer to a club recovering from administration and apparently on their knees.
New chairman Raj Singh had, apparently, told Todd that his time was up should they fail to beat
Grimsby last Saturday, and it was a burden that weighed heavily on Todd’s shoulders.
Yet Singh, as he told the club’s official website, believes his relationship with Todd is not tainted by his decision to remove him from his post.
"It's with great regret we are having to part company, albeit amicably,” he said.
"We were delighted with the work Colin did in the summer, assembling a squad from scratch.
"He's a good guy and was very easy to work with and I'd like to thank him for everything he did for us.''
Darlington Managing Director Graham Fordy claimed that Todd was aware that he was going to leave and it was his decision.
“He met the chairman on Monday and agreed if a victory didn’t come his way on Saturday that he would resign and that’s exactly what he’s done,” said Fordy.
However, Todd’s view of his departure from the Quakers differs hugely to that of both Fordy and Singh.
“I didn’t resign from the football club. I never resigned at all. A decision was made by the chairman that if we didn’t win the game we would part company,” Todd told The Northern Echo.
"I spoke with the chairman after we had lost 2-0 at home to Bournemouth the previous weekend and they told me about different things they wanted to do and I said that would have been very unfair after just eight league games.
"I said I wanted a little bit more time. We then had a meeting on the Monday and I was told I had two games, against Grimsby and
Rochdale, and that if we won against Grimsby we go on to the next one.
"That was the decision and I kept it from everybody, the players, Dean, who has left the club, even my wife.
"I kept it all to myself because I honestly believed we could win. I was then left to deal with the media after the game. I told them it had been the chairman's decision, that it was out of my hands and I said I think he should have been here to face you guys.
"I could have said nothing to the media afterwards and put the onus back on the chairman. But I've done the honourable thing. But now you're left to wonder, if they take two points from the next nine games, what happens then?”
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