And so it comes to pass that Dale have made the Play Offs, in a season which many felt could wilt early on due to the expectation levels only for those very same expectation levels to be surpassed, and Darlington await us this weekend for our efforts.

So when these two League Two heavyweights go slugging it out this weekend, it won' t just be a place at Wembley that's up for grabs. No way josé. We're coming to the fight with our title of "Longest serving members" of this division on the line. And with Darlington the number one challengers to this title (a mere 16 consecutive basement seasons compared to our magnificent 33!), who could possibly be better opponents for us to take on in the battle for the very name of this division. There will be some out there who think "The Darlo division" has a nice ring to it. Hmm, we'll see.

And not only that, you don't have to go back more than a couple of seasons to the days when Dale and Darlington were local rivals. Until the influx of the Yorkshire sides to occupy the entire midtable, and the season long cameo from Hartlepool, we were Darlo's closest opponents in what must have ranked as British football's 3,876,256th fiercest derby according to that recent poll which had us and Bury one spot below the Manchester derby or something like that.

Anyway on to the game itself. I did a Q&A thing for the Darlington site the other day, and was asked about the feeling amongst the Dale supporters with regards to the Play Offs, and it got me thinking. It's like there's a real belief amongst the fans that this is our year, but maybe its down to the continued reference to Football Gods over the season (and I swear I read or heard Hilly mention them this week), there isn't any complacency or underestimating the task that lies ahead of us.

Breaking the club's record points total was a fantastic achievement. Finishing above every single team with similar resources to ourselves, and finishing above many with significantly higher budgets than us was something to be proud of. Making the Play Offs was wonderful for this club. Without doubt, this has been a great season.

But it's not over yet.

Not by a long way. Making Wembley for the first time in our history will be an even greater achievement than anything listed in the previous paragraph, but even then we're not going there simply for a day out in the smoke, wearing curly wigs, adorning facepaint and waving to the assorted television brigade. We've got a job to do, and that job is promotion.

It's stating the absolute obvious I know but making the play offs gives us a chance of being one of the two sides to make it to Wembley, which will then give us a chance of being the one side to join Posh, MK and Hereford in League One next season. Making the play offs is simply halfway there.

It's not a Lottery as some would describe it. If it was a lottery, then that would exclude all skills, efforts, abilities, fitness, management, belief and hard graft from the outcome. And we've had a season built on each of those very things in abundance. Nothing has been left to chance, and you can bet that every aspect of preparation has been painstakingly planned out to perfection.

If you're after omens, then most things are going in our favour. We've always enjoyed a generally decent record both at Feethams and at the Darlington "Your Advert Goes Here" Arena. The game will no doubt conjure up memories for many of the Darlo v Dale Cup replay from 1995 when Dean Martin's late header sent us to Anfield. Even the ref this weekend was in charge for one of our numerous four goal away wins this season. But most importantly, with fantastic weather forecast, there's not a hope in hell of an Andy Thackeray being a useless tosser moment.

So to finish off with, it's just an appeal to the undecided. If you're in two minds about whether to go or not, put it this way. Yes, it'll be great to watch Dale down the pub, perhaps with a pint or two to celebrate should the result go our way. But you can do all of that when you get back from the North East. Is celebrating with a pint or two going to be any better than celebrating with 3,500 other Daleys going absolutely mental in the biggest love in since the rave scene of the late 80's?

Whatever happens, you'll never regret going, but there's that chance you'll regret missing out. Ticket office is open on Friday till 7pm. Tell them Hilly sent you.