After a rough start for Darlington Football Club, also known as Darlo, a new manager has been found to replace the recent Alun Armstrong. Josh Gowling is the new manager after Alun Armstrong was sacked from the club after having a rocky start to the season. Darlington are currently sitting at the bottom of league after not winning one league game at home.
Alun Armstrong was the manager of Darlington FC from 21st of May 2019 to the 6th of September 2023 after replacing the previous manager Tommy Wright. During his time at the club, he managed over 140 games winning 36% of those games, drawing 24% and losing 40%.
He did have multiple successful runs for the club however they weren't enough to keep him as manager any longer. At the start of last season, Armstrong won the National League North Manager of the month award. His team won all the four games they played during that month, pushing Darlington up to 3rd place in the league table.
Before he arrived at Darlington, Armstrong was the manager of Blythe Spartans where he had a similar run as he had had at Darlington. However, in his first year at Blyth he managed the team through to winning the Northern Premier League where they were promoted into the National League North. Blyth have managed to stay in the National League North ever since.
Before joining Darlington, Josh Gowling had his first managerial post at Hereford who are also in the National League North.
Before taking up jobs as the manager he played for many different football teams including Kidderminster, Torquay and Grimsby before retiring as a player from Hereford in 2020. Over his playing career he played in 398 games, scoring 17 goals. As a manager he also won manager of the month with Hereford in October 2022 when he won four out of five games.
Working alongside new manager Josh Gowling is assistant manager Danny Rose. Rose played and coached for Darlington in the 2022/23 season appearing in around half of the clubs fixtures. Could having an assistant manger who has played and worked along side the squad recently put Darlo into a better place?
With the season still in its early stages Darlington still have the chance to recuperate and rise back up in the league table to hopefully prevent them getting relegated. With new manager Josh Gowling and assistant Danny Rose they should be able to build a stronger team and push on for success.