Hibs ready to put young stars on loan

HIBS boss John Hughes is ready to make greater use of the loan system as he bids to give his Easter Road kids desperately needed first-team experience.

The scrapping of the SPL reserve league has left a string of young players in limbo, not ready as yet for the step-up to top-flight football but too old to continue at Under-19 level.

The only option besides training and playing meaningless "bounce" matches against other clubs is to go out on loan.

Hughes tried to spice up the almost weekly friendly games against Scottish outfits last season with trips to face Newcastle United and Sunderland but recognises there's no substitute for competitive action.

Last week, he said he felt the likes of Kurtis Byrne, Lee Currie, Sean Welsh, Callum Booth and Ewan Moyes, all members of the previous season's highly successful Under-19 side, couldn't be promoted to his first team at a time when Hibs were battling to secure a place in Europe.

Byrne spent a short spell on loan at Stirling Albion last season while Welsh and Currie did likewise at Stenhousemuir but Hughes feels both Booth and Moyes benefited substantially from enjoying the second half of the campaign with Arbroath.

"We thought it was a poor decision at the time," said a club official of the ending of the reserve league, "and we still think it was a poor decision. It's hard to give the younger players competitive football."

Hibs, meanwhile, stand to pick up a sum in excess of 500,000 should ex-striker Steven Fletcher's proposed 7 million move from Burnley to Wolves go ahead, just a year after he left Easter Road for 3m. The club have been said to be ready to benefit by 1m from the deal but, the Evening News understands, they'll do so to a more modest, if still substantial, level.