MITCHELL GLOVER created a bit of history on Saturday when he became the first player born after January 1, 2000 to start a league game for Darlington.

He was brought to the club in December from Nuneaton Town by Tommy Wright, who rates the midfielder highly, and started Quakers’ 1-0 win over Curzon Ashton.

He turns 17 in April, on Saturday aged exactly 16 years, 10 months and 8 days on his first start for the club, although he has previously made two appearances as a substitute (at home to Harrogate Town and away to Brackley).

Putting Glover’s age into perspective, he was born in April 2001, when Gary Bennett was manager, when Olivier Bernard was on loan to Darlington, and when Craig Liddle was a fixture in the middle of defence.

Other Quakers to make their Darlington debut at a young age have been Connor Lowes, Dale Anderson and Curtis Main, who remains the club’s youngest ever player.

Main made his mark when he came off the bench for the final league game of the 2007-08 season, the South Shields-born striker was 15 years 10 months 13 days when he played away to Peterborough United and manager Dave Penney made a handful of changes in readiness for the play-offs.

Darlington won 2-0, Jason Kennedy and Micky Cummins scoring, and Quakers then contested the League Two play-offs with Rochdale, Main an unused sub in the second leg at Spotland.

Four years later, and with Darlington by now in the Northern League, Lowes was aged 16 years, 3 months and 23 days when he came off the bench in Quakers’ 3-0 win at Dunston UTS.

It was an occasion he celebrated with a goal, rounding the goalkeeper to add the final flourish to a game in which Joe Tait and Shaun Reay (penalty) had already netted.

Dale Anderson became Quakers’ then youngest ever player in the penultimate match of the 1986-87 season, a 1-0 defeat at Chesterfield.

The youth team product from Newton Aycliffe replaced Garry MacDonald came off the bench aged 16 years, 8 months and 11 days, making what would be the first of 19 first-team appearances.