HIBS Under-19 side have soared to the top of the Scottish Professional Youth League, unbeaten and six points clear after eight matches – but today coach Alistair Stevenson insisted there was an even greater prize at stake for his youngsters.
While going on to lift the title would give everyone great satisfaction, Stevenson believes it would count for nothing if none of the kids go on to play first team football at Easter Road.
During five years with the club Stevenson has watched with
pride as more than 20 youngsters have moved from youth football to wearing a green-and-white shirt in the SPL.
And now he has high hopes that a good number of the latest crop will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Garry O'Connor, Derek Riordan, Scott Brown, Steven Whittaker, Kevin Thomson, Steven Fletcher, Ross Chisholm and Paul Hanlon.
Stevenson said: "We have a team well capable of sustaining a good challenge and winning the league, with the results so far proving we are comfortable against anyone on our day. We had a really good pre-season, we played ten games, won nine and drew the other. Those games, of course, are not of paramount importance, but it got them into good habits while we rotated the squad to make sure everyone played.
"Since the league started we've played eight, won seven including yesterday's 3-1 win at Aberdeen, and drawn one, making a total of 15 wins and two draws so we've got a good wee run going.
"It would be nice to keep this group together for the year and make a big, big effort to win the title but, at the end of the day, that's not our goal. Our aim is to provide players who can play regularly for the reserves and get onto the bench for the first team by the end of the season.
"Hopefully a healthy number will do that, which will leave us to start again, looking for a new batch to come through."
Although, by definition, Stevenson's charges are aged 17 and 18 – at 16, Scott Smith is the youngest – a number of them are already becoming well known among those Hibs fans who regularly attend reserve games, which, he insists, are a vital part of the youngster's development.
Pointing out how Rangers skipper Barry Ferguson has been pencilled in for a return from injury in Tuesday's reserve game with Hibs at Almondvale, Stevenson said: "It's a great step for them to make, it gives them confidence to realise they can go into these matches and do well.
"Last year we had Kurtis Byrne playing against Bobo Balde, a bit of a mis-match, but he did well. Then a few weeks later we played Rangers and he came up against Andy Webster and scored two goals. The other night David Wotherspoon scored against Hamilton who had a hefty number of first team players out with the reserves and we ended the game with eight or nine of our youngsters on the park, great experience for them."
Stevenson admitted that, while it might be difficult to emulate what became known as the "goalden generation" of O'Connor, Riordan and the like, his optimism regarding the future of many of the youngsters was shared by those in charge of Scotland's various age group teams.
He said: "When Scotland's under-19s played Holland the other week we had five in the squad, Wotherspoon, Callum Booth, who is only 17, Sean Welsh, Lee Currie and Hanlon. Next week they are playing a European qualifying match in Hungary and, in a smaller squad, we still have Booth, Hanlon and Wotherspoon.
"Smith, who has just turned 16, was in the Scotland under-21 squad which qualified for the Elite Round of their European Championships while Byrne, a real goalscorer, has been on duty with the Republic of Ireland.
"But we are not just testing ourselves against the best in Scotland, earlier this year we went down to London and played Spurs, Manchester United and the South African national team. We acquitted ourselves really well with the English clubs have young players for whom they have paid millions of pounds, that's the type of competition we are looking for."
However, while he can delight in seeing youngsters make the move from the obscurity of youth football to the big stage, Stevenson also laments the necessary "cull" which takes place each year as high hopes are dashed with the news that there's no long a place for certain individuals at Easter Road.
He said: "There's a competition among the boys themselves and it can be cut throat at the end of the day. We've had to off-load some lads who have done well and been in international squads because there's only a limited number who can move up to the first team squad.
"At that level Mixu Paatelainen has to put out a team capable of getting results. At youth level and, to a limited extent, in the reserves you can experiment and give players a wee chance.
"The first team is different, it's win at all costs, you have to put out a team able to do that as opposed to giving someone a wee chance to show what he can do.
"Unfortunately, we can't keep every youngster but, just because they are not offered a contract here, doesn't mean they are not good players and can't go on to have a successful career, for example both Sean Lynch and Dermott McCaffrey who were released by us are now playing for Falkirk."
Only time will tell, of course, which of the youngsters will go on to emulate the likes of Gordon Hunter, Paul Kane, Mickey Weir, Steven Tweed, Willie Miller, Kevin Harper, Kenny Miller, Riordan and Co and, more recently Fletcher, Lewis Stevenson, Kevin McCann and Ross Chisholm.
But, to the current generation, Stevenson believes the experience of Hanlon, still only 18, is more pertinent, the young full-back having virtually gone from under-19 football to the SPL in one step.
He said: "Paul hardly played reserve team football. There was an emergency situation before last season's Scottish Cup tie against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, the manager asked if he could play at that level, we said 'yes' and Paul did exceptionally well.
"Because Paul is still eligible to play under-19 football, the other boys look at him, say to themselves they are not far behind him and want a bit of what he has got for themselves."
The full article contains 1126 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
