The press and programme column inches talked of how Dennis had settled in well at Brighton & had a good spell of games in the first team, well respected by his team mates and management he was a well liked team member, however recently engaged to be married & the distances and logistics around returning to the North East every weekend took its toil inevitably.

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Dropped into the Reserve Team with 4 games of the regular season left, Dennis was transferred to Darlington in a Swap with Bobby Baxter an Ex-Ireland International, both players valued around the £6000 mark. Even 50 years ago it would seem Football was a results driven business & Centre Forwards with only 4 senior goals in 21 games were surplus to requirements!

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Darlington would be a return to the lower divisions compared to Brighton but it provided stability in his personal life and he was married in Oct 1961 in Redcar, where he would settle for the rest of his life.