Alan White speaks to the Quaker matchday magazine. This article was orginally printed in the Darlington v Wrexham programme on August 11th.

Following an absence of just over ten years Alan White has returned to his roots. The Darlington born defender, who went to school in the Haughton area of the town, left the area in 1997 when he joined Luton Town from Middlesbrough. For the thirty-one year old it is a case of third time lucky having seen two previous attempts to move to the club fall through.

Since leaving the North East and Middlesbrough the defender has spent the majority of his career down South including spells at Luton Town, Colchester, Leyton Orient, Boston United and more recently Notts County and Peterborough. With two attempts to rejoin his hometown club already behind him White has not needed much convincing to return.

"I haven't lived up here for about 11 years now when I left Boro for Luton. I've been down South ever since. This is about the third time I've held talks with the club. When I left Luton I had talks then but it didn't happen and when I was leaving Boston I chatted to them again. At the time I think the manager was trying to get sorted out with Shelton Martis and Matt Clarke and unfortunately it just fell through. It's a case of third time lucky really," said White.

"It has never really been a big thing for me to move back up North like some players. But if you get the opportunity to play for your hometown club then you've got to snap it up. Its great and I'm really looking forward to it. It's a bit of a dream really because when you are a kid you always want to play for your home team and that's what I'm doing now. I've just got to make the most of it now its here."

With well over 300 games behind him however White will bring plenty of experience to the Darlington dressing room but the only thing missing from a career spanning eight different clubs before Darlington is a promotion - something White hopes to sort out this term.

"I've never been relegated or promoted. It's about time something happened for me. I think we have a good enough team and a manager who is experienced with promotions and getting the right group of lads together so it is looking positive. I'm hoping that this year will be the one for me," said the defender.

White finished last season on loan with Peterborough United. The move, a surprise says the former Magpies skipper, was expected to be made a permanent one come the summer but it never came about. Whilst Posh stalled over a potential move to London Road White held talks with Quakers and decided his future lay back home and became one of the club's first signings.

"The move to Peterborough was a bit out of the blue to be honest. I played just about every game for Notts County, was captain and we were doing okay. Then the manager came in and said Peterborough wanted me on loan for the last month and half of the season. He wasn't sure I would be getting offered a new contract at County because they were making changes. He said it would be difficult to tell me not to go to Peterborough. He said it was an opportunity and fair play to Steve Thompson because that was a nice thing to do and you don't get that often in football," said White.

"The idea was to stay at Peterborough but as time went on they were asking me to wait. I waited and still nothing until it got to the point where I needed to know by a certain date. I had already been up to talk to Dave Penney and once I'd done that and seen his plans and disused a contract I was keen to get it done and dusted. The things that were offered here meant it was difficult to keep them (Darlington) waiting."

"It is nice to be wanted. When you've got an experienced manager like Dave Penney and a club with good fans it is difficult to turn them down. That was never going to happen when I knew Dave Penney was interested and I would be one of his first signings. It gives you a bit of a buzz being near the top of a manager's list of players he wants to bring in. You get excited by stuff like that and you've got to get involved," said the defender.