EVERY football club has dates that are synonymous with their history, a day that is set in stone as a day which shaped the history of the side. For Manchester United, February 6, 1958 saw the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster; League One strugglers Nottingham Forest won the second of two European Cups on May 28 1980; on May 25 1996, Darlington appeared at Wembley for the first time.

Sunday, May 15, 2005 was a similarly significant day in the history of Axa FC. For starters, we beat Brown Trout 3-1 to secure fourth spot in the Third Division, our highest ever league finish - with yours truly grabbing the second goal, a momentous occasion in itself.

But it was in the pub after the match that the real drama began. First it was confirmed that the club's name would change to RAC from next season, and that we would be changing our traditional colours of blue and white to blue and orange.

Then it was revealed we would no longer be playing at Rothmans, our home ground since the club formed, following a dispute with the new owners of the pitch. And then after telling us all that, manager Chris Johnson casually dropped in the fact that he had resigned.

Johnson is undoubtedly the club's most successful ever manager, despite never coming remotely close to actually winning everything, as our only previous manager's record was even more ignominious.

However, he will continue to play, so we haven't escaped his regurgitation of pointless statistics and old music trivia just yet. Nonetheless, he will be missed as manager and I'd like to thank him for all his hard work.

Johnson only became manager because nobody else wanted to do it, but there are several candidates to replace him.

Heading the queue appear to be rotund hitman John Wilde, famed for his biting comments from the sidelines, and punkhaired centre-back Ross Enfield.

Ross staked his claims for the job by scoring arguably the best own goal of all time in our last match when, with the score at 20, Brown Trout were awarded a penalty.

Ste Donnelly stepped up to take it but 'keeper Luke Stott pulled off a great save to deflect it onto the post, rolled back out and thankfully Ross was first to it, under no pressure at all. But for some reason that nobody can quite understand, he ended up booting it into the top corner of his own net from three yards. It was a miscue which made Djimi Traore and Frank Sinclair seem mere amateurs by comparison.

Thankfully for Ross - whose brother Nick had earlier scored a screamer at the right end - there wasn't much of a crowd to witness his embarrassment, but there certainly was at the League Cup Final last Sunday.

There was even an admission charge at Brinkburn Road - all of which went to charity - so the money must have been rolling in. And assuming Cleveland Bridge's sizeable non-playing squad members had to pay, that must be about a hundred quid already.

This is the last King of the Wing this season but the column will return in August, assuming I survive pre-season training that is. See you next season.

Published: 27/05/2005