Chris Hughes provided a pivotal moment in the club’s fight against relegation.(Writes Craig Stoddart)

By the end of January during season 2003-04 there was doom and gloom at the Arena, the club’s first at the stadium, as Quakers were languishing towards the bottom of League Two having won only five of their 28 games.

David Hodgson had replaced Mick Tait as manager, but had failed to spark a revival in his 11 games at the helm thus far as the club dealt with the turmoil of being in administration.

On January 31, however, Quakers welcomed Rochdale to the Arena, a game that was to herald a fresh start with Hughes the instigator. Having collected a welcome point at Kidderminster a week earlier when David McGurk was on the scoresheet, it was Hughes’ turn to become a hero.

Ten minutes from time, amid torrential rain, the blonde-haired youngster found himself in an advanced position to drill home an Ian Clark teaser from the left - the bulk of the bumper 5,689 crowd were jubilant and, as the pictures show, Hughes was mobbed on the sodden playing surface by team-mates.

Hughes’ goal and the win proved crucial. Buoyed by the victory, Darlington seized the moment and created momentum that saw them seal Football League safety with three games to go by winning eight of their last 17 fixtures.

Yet, Hughes only played against Rochdale because Ryan Valentine was suspended.

Hodgson had previously used the teenager sparingly and, speaking in The Northern Echo two days before the game, the manager had said: "It’s up to Chris to show me what he can do and if he does well then he will stay in the team. This is a good chance for the lad and hopefully he'll make it difficult for me to leave him out."

Thankfully for Darlington, Hughes took his chance with aplomb.