Burns heads young hopefuls in waiting

THE YOUNG talent bubbling away under the first-team surface will show itself before the end of the season.

That is the ideal scenario for Athletic manager Paul Dickov, who wants the next crop to follow in the recent footsteps of the likes of James Tarkowski, David Mellor and Carl Winchester.

Ryan Burns appears closest to breaking through.

The young Northern Irish player, converted from a winger to a midfield holding player in Tony Philliskirk's under-18s side, was named in the squad for the recent games at Sheffield United and at home to Scunthorpe.

Others, too, may soon be involved. "Ryan is a talented boy and knows what we think of him," Dickov said.

"He has been training with us a lot and he would be the first to admit he is not quite ready yet.

"That is not to say he won't get his chance before the end of the season, because that is something we are planning towards.

"There is (centre-back pairing) Alex Parkes and Glenn Belezika as well, who we are looking to push on."

Athletic are without a reserve-team fixture until March 21.

While not ideal from the point of view of getting match fitness into those who need it, Dickov pointed out that if further games were scheduled, then the heavy run of first-team fixtures would play its part in disrupting any preparations made by reserve-team boss Lee Duxbury.

"You would ideally want the first-team substitutes to play in reserve matches," said Dickov.

"But they could come on after 30 or 40 minutes, in which case you don't want them to be in the reserves — because more often than not, they have replaced an injury which means you don't want to risk them.

"Youssouf Mchangama could do with a few games and there a lot of others who could as well, purely to get their fitness levels up."