Return of reserves would help youth, insists McInnes

St JOHNSTONE manager Derek McInnes believes the reintroduction of reserve team football would be one way to help develop young players in Scotland.

In a week which saw the national team continue their struggle to qualify for the finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1998 with a narrow 1-0 home win over Lithuania in their Euro 2012 qualifier, the issue of standards in Scottish football was raised again.

McInnes, preparing his side for the trip to St Mirren in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League today, believes more must be done to help those leaving the current under-19s league, the last structured level before first-team football.

“Once players leave the under-19s, a lot of them have nowhere to go,” he said. “I was brought up at Morton playing in the Premier League reserves and I remember as a 16-year-old playing against Celtic when they had top players like Mark McGhee, Paul McStay and Mick McCarthy in their team. You are not trying to tell me that isn’t good for your development and give you aspirations.

“But if you keep putting boys in against boys, how much are they going to develop? Ideally, the best of my under-19s would go in to a reserve team. I can’t see it happening though.”