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The problem with that is Cooper Masson is nowhere near ready for our first team, hence why he's at Kelty. He's among the best in that age group (involved with Scotland setup). If the English teams are coming in at 16-17, then we've got little hope. Boyd looked like a fantastic prospect, but this season is the first where he's looked physically strong enough to get in our first team, and it was obviously known to the club that he wasn't willing to stay by that point. You're really looking at 19 before most players will be strong enough these days, with only a handful of exceptions. Wilson at hearts is an example. Lauded everywhere, but in reality was nowhere near good enough to be playing every week and physically weak. He's now warming the bench. Bowie at Hibs has bulked up and is now showing the talent matched with the athleticism. I don't think that can be rushed through. I'd like to see more young players, but I think that the club will have to publicly set a quota so that both manager and player get a bit of breathing space to implement. I've said it before, but these young lads don't owe the club anything. We are fairly quick to ditch players we don't want, so we have no right to expect loyalty on the other side. If we can announce that we will be taking a minimum of two academy players into the squad to be playing twenty games (including subs), then players might begin to take note. We've currently got Duncan (not good enough), and Lobban (needs game time now) filling a quota for European football in what appears to be detrimental to their development.

Mitchell Frame off the bench for U21s

Not picking Gunn enough?

Decent performance and a comfortable win. Thought Adams was very good, also McGinn, Gilmour and Doak. Subs again were a bit poor. Clarke is playing this campaign ultra safe, and I can see why, but we could have pushed it tonight again. Adams was very good as I said, but that absolute sitter he missed was because he had been running himself into the ground. Bowie deserved 15-20 minutes to show what he could do, and I suspect he'd have buried that. Wouldn't have minded seeing Doak switching wings for a spell too, and obviously Miller on instead of McLean. Clarke made little attempt in the last campaign to transition to the future, and he's doing it again. If Dykes isn't playing much before the next game then we might want to give Bowie a chance, so why not give him a taster? I don't think Dykes as a sub is going to grab a goal against tiring defenders. Again, taking the chances when they arise is vital, and goal difference is also vital. Clarke is really putting his faith on taking everything at Hampden. It's high risk.