CUP OF PLENTY GIVES McGHEE HOPE FOR FUTURE

THOSE fortunate enough to lift the Scottish Youth Cup are always well advised to milk the moment for all it’s worth. As much as the trophy is rightly seen as an important milestone on any fledgling player’s career path, it also offers no guarantees. Far too many players subsequently fail to make the distance and become lost to the game. For Motherwell, the capturing of the cup for the first time in their history after a 5-2 win over Hearts on Wednesday could hardly be more timely — coming 25 years since the club left Hampden with the Scottish Cup. But while Mark McGhee — who attended the game along with the entire first-team squad — is realistic enough to know that not all of the class of 2016 will graduate with distinction, the Fir Park manager believes more than half have the wherewithal to eventually become permanent fixtures in his side. ‘As far as winning the cup is concerned, I don’t think it will have a direct effect on career outcomes,’ he said. ‘But it gives them confidence and belief — and it helps the prestige of the club. It’s good for everyone. It’s a good group in terms of the numbers we see that will one day be in the first team. ‘I would have thought that possibly six of that team from Wednesday night have long-term futures at the football club. The percentage is high. ‘Sometimes you have a group and you think none of them will ever make the first team and they all eventually leave, so here we have a group where a lot of them are potentially first-team players. ‘It was a huge part of what Les Hutchison (former club owner) asked me to do — to try to get the boys in the team as early as possible. ‘We’ve introduced our “Pride” programme to accelerate these boys through the academy, with Scott Leitch, and into Stephen Craigan’s Under-20s and get as many of them into the first team as possible. ‘It was part of my brief and, just because Les isn’t involved now, I’m not about to start looking for a different way of doing things. We’re going to stick to that.’ Of course, football is littered with stories of players who failed to make the grade at one club but, for one reason or another, kicked on elsewhere. Harry Kane was let go by Arsenal at an early age, Celtic allowed Andrew Robertson to slip through their fingers while Kilmarnock were content to end their association with Barrie McKay. McGhee can vouch for the fact that an initial rejection in the game need not mean the end of the line. ‘You need to earn your breakthrough and accept setbacks,’ he said. ‘I started out with Bristol City and was freed. I could easily have hung up my boots. I didn’t do that as I wanted to play football. I was given an opportunity at Morton and I took it.’