Whilst we will keep everyone up to date with player signings and progress reports the pre season is a quiet time for articles. With that in mind I thought it might be useful to look back over our history and some of the players who wore the famous blue and white kit. Some of today's players at many non-league clubs including ours think they are "ballers" but how would they compare to players of old who played in the blue and white of Darlaston over the last 145 years.

I am afraid they will have something of a shock when they read articles over the next few weeks of some of the players who have represented our wonderful town. We have had two England Internationals, including an England captain play for us as well as a Welsh International and several FA Cup Winners. We've had players who have played for Manchester United, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Wolves, Spurs, Watford, Southampton, WBA, Manchester City and many more Premier League and Football League clubs.

Over the next few weeks we will look at some of these players so that supporters young and old can reminisce and understand why so many of us love the club and town as much as we do.

The first of these articles in the next few days will look back at a former England captain, FA Cup Winner and FA Cup winning manager who played for the club as a 17-year-old."