Seven days ago Dale Hopson made a remarkable impact on his Darlington debut. Man of the match as Quakers won 3-1 at Ebbsfleet United, the teenager scored once, had a hand in the other two goals and created a glut of chances for team-mates on a day that offered hope for the future.

The team's best display of the season - and Hopson's introduction - lifted spirits among worried supporters who are concerned after chairman Raj Singh's recent suggestions of an imminent demise for the club.

So it is with no small amount of irony that while the club's immediate future appears to be so uncertain, its long-term future is in such good hands.

Craig Liddle is taking the plaudits, as he did so often during his playing days. Quakers' head of youth has overseen a radical improvement of a section of the club that previously bore little fruit.

Occasionally a youngster would be given a run, such as Mark Sheeran in 2001-02 or Chris Hughes a couple of years later, but it would not be long before they were surplus to requirements and heading for the Northern League.

Until Dan Burn and Michael Smith moved this year to Fulham and Charlton respectively, netting the club about £400,000 plus various add-ons, Darlington had not sold a homegrown youngster since 1998.

That was when David Hodgson brokered a deal with Kenny Dalglish, then Newcastle United manager, to sell James Coppinger and Paul Robinson for a combined £500,000 fee rising to £1.8m.

But since Liddle's return, Darlington have developed a reputation for being a breeding ground for talented teenagers.

His youth team are second in the table, having won six of their past seven league games, and are bidding to go one stage further in the FA Youth Cup than last season when they lost to Arsenal in the third round.

This time they have been handed a tie at Newcastle United on December 8. In the previous round against Shrewsbury a fortnight ago there were as many scouts in the stand as there were players on the pitch.

"There were around 20 scouts here and, without being disrespectful, I don't think they were watching Shrewsbury," said Liddle. "There's Premier League interest in four or five of the boys."

Hopson became the tenth player to make the step up from youth ranks to the senior side since Liddle took up his position in April 2008 - the previous ten trainee debutants came over a six-year period.

Soon after Liddle's appointment he informed manager Dave Penney of a promising striker who was turning heads in the youth section.

Penney listened and in the final league match of the season, at Peterborough United, Curtis Main became the club's youngest ever player aged 15 years and 318 days and that set the trend.

As well as Burn, Smith, Hopson and Main, there's been John McReady, Phil Gray, Josh Gray, Dan Groves, Corey Barnes and Jordan Marshall. There's also been a glut of trainees called on for first team duty as unused substitutes.

That managers have trusted Liddle's judgement is a major factor.

"I've been fortunate in that the managers that have been here have listened when I've pushed forward a player who I think could step up," said Liddle, interim first team manager since Mark Cooper was sacked last month.

"I've been fortunate that managers have had the belief to stick players in. They've let me get on with my job and I've had a good working relationship with all of them. They've trusted my judgement, but when it comes to giving out senior contracts, it's been up to them as it's their budget."

The reserve side was abandoned as a cost-cutting measure in 2008, and Liddle admitted: "It does have an effect because the jump from youth team to first team is massive. We haven't got that middle phase, that development phase that we need.

"It's sink or swim. Once you're in the first team you've got to deal with it or you'll be deemed not good enough. But the ones that have made the step up have done well."

Hopson, 19, did more than just well last weekend, and it is hoped he will become Liddle's next success, the latest off a production line that kicked into action with Main's debut.

The striker left last summer, released by Cooper, and is now banging the goals in with regularity for the reserves at Middlesbrough, a club cited by Liddle as an example to all those that work in youth development and he is attempting to replicate the Teessiders' methods.

He said: "My son has been at Middlesbrough's centre of excellence since he was seven or eight-years-old for the last five years, so I'm over there quite regularly and have seen how they do things. I've tried to model things here in the best way we can on how Middlesbrough do it.

"They've had great success and they've no secrets, they're willing to share things so they've been a big help and I've taken an enormous amount from them.

"The intention when I came into this job was that it had to have a long-term plan. Initially I said five years because if you're going to have any success at developing players you need someone there for a long time and Middlesbrough's a prime example.

"Dave Parnaby's been their academy manager since about 1999 and just take a look at what they're producing. Chopping and changing every two or three years doesn't give you any consistency, which is something you need at youth team level.

"It's the same at Sunderland with Ged McNamee, they've sold players on for a lot of money and had a lot come through the ranks."

But why is the son of Darlington's head of youth with Boro and not Darlington?

"He's been there since before I took this job," explained Liddle. "He loves it, so he'll be there as long as they want him and he's happy.

"You always want the best for your kids and Middlesbrough have got the best facilities in the country so his football education there will be as good as he's going to get.

"The amount of money they've created through transfers is because their academy is second to none."

Although Liddle began coaching Quakers' trainees in 2008, he has been involved in youth football since well before his days as a Darlington defender were over.

He was coaching Boro's under-10s in 2000 while he also worked with Sunderland's younger age groups when he retired from playing in 2005. He then worked full-time as football development manager at Darlington College before returning to the Arena, replacing Mick Tait.

His own methods include keeping an eye on Quakers' players at all ages, starting with watching centre of excellence matches at weekends.

He said: "I take a close look at things from the under-9s all the way through to 18s. I'll watch the centre of excellence games every single Sunday, I don't ever miss them, and when they get to 14, 15 and 16, that's when you're looking at them with a view to becoming potentially full-time.

"There's some good coaches in there and a lot of unsung heroes. Our head of recruitment, Les Wray, does a fantastic job in picking out some of these lads.

"I always try and get players in who are comfortable on the ball. Some clubs go for physicality, but first and foremost I think you've got to be able to control a football.

"The first thing that stood out with Dan Burn was his height, obviously, but he was good on the ball. He got caught out of position, but that's something you can put right with coaching and he had time to improve."

Burn's transformation from the scrawny centre-back who was released by Newcastle when he was 15 to the £325,000 player that Fulham bought this summer stands as Liddle's finest work.

Liddle spotted him playing in a schoolboy match, rescued him from a life of shelf-stacking and he is now a regular in Fulham's reserves.

"The best example of a player improving is Dan," said Liddle. "When he came in he was 6ft 5in, very gangly and a little bit unsure what he needed to do and where he needed to be.

"I remember the first two or three months he thought ‘this is not for me' because I used to hammer him from the touchline.

"I remember one day he just turned around and said ‘what do you want me to do?' I had to go through everything, and looking back, that chat helped. I told him, ‘the minute I stop shouting at you, that's when you've got a problem because that would mean I've given up hope with you'.

"He progressed really quickly and the one thing he did have was a desire to be the best. He was working part-time in Asda before he came to us and did find the training hard, but it was better than stacking shelves for a living.

"Dan and Michael moving on is a selling tool for us, it's how I sell the club to incoming apprentices."

Being able to hone a youngster's skills before selling him is hugely beneficial to lower league clubs, especially those such as Darlington whose youth set-up faces the prospect of losing funding from the Football League if they fail to win promotion this season.

They received £180,000 a year when in the Football League. That dropped to £90,000 for the first two terms in the Conference and that figure drops to zero if they do not return to League Two next year.

Yet, in the same way that Darlington offered Burn and Smith their start in the game, it would surprise nobody if Liddle was to one day become head-hunted by an academy.

Few would begrudge him the opportunity, though his exit would leave a significant hole to fill.

He has proved his worth during the past month by combining his youth role with being caretaker manager, a period in which he turned down the chance to replace Cooper permanently.

He said: "I'm ambitious and I'd like to work with the best players and the best facilities. One day I'd like to think I'll get the chance at a good academy.

"I've still got a lot to learn, but this has been a great grounding for me and some day I'd like to move on to bigger and better things.

"I do work a lot of hours because I'm a big believer in saying that you get out whatever you put in. I get stick off my family because I'm working seven days a week every week, but there's a lot worse jobs out there.

"I love coming to work every day, especially getting on the training pitch with the youth team.

"It's a genuine love for the job that drives me on."