Dundee becoming place for young stars to shine

“There is no barrier. It’s not like ‘you’re only 16 or 17 and you’ve not really cracked it yet’, there’s nothing like that.

“Come in for the four weeks of pre-season and blow the webs off it.”

There might be no barrier but the level required from these young players and what the manager expects from every player, no matter the age, is extremely high.

And it won’t take long for the youngsters to find that out.

A prime example is 19-year-old Scott, a prolific goalscorer in the Development League, who featured for the Dark Blues in the final three matches of the last campaign.

He came on against Partick Thistle in the l ast game of the season, replacing Craig Wighton after an hour, but failed to manager.

Neil said: “I’ll not tell you what I told Cedwyn after the Partick game but it was pretty stark.

“If he is coming into my first team I expect him to score goals, create chances, to run after centre-backs, close down full-backs – he doesn’t get let off because he’s 18 years old.

“He’s coming i n during the summer and he’s got a short space of time to get in my face and say ‘I’m better than what you’re going to bring in. If you’ve not got anybody in yet, gaffer, I’m your man’.

“All the boys that have made an impact in the first team have a real chance but they need to come back and be better than what I’ve got.” impress his

Matty Henvey grabbed a vital goal at Hamilton back in January.