Give youth a chance: Pars raid academy for six players

Dunfermline have raided the Fife Elite Football Academy to make six new signings.

The Pars have agreed twoyear deals with the highly-rated youngsters as they piece together a squad to play in the new SPFL reserve league next season.

Matty Todd, Josh Robertson, Gregor Jordan, Lewis McCann, Lewis Crosbie and Kieran Swanson will help form the nucleus of the East End Park second-string set-up.

However, the teenagers are all being urged to set their sights on a future in the Dunfermline first team.

Pars coach John Potter said: “It is important to give them a good chance.

“The first year can be hard, there are a lot of ups and downs and, if they are all playing reserve team football and under-18s, at times it will be tough.

“I think that they will learn a lot from it and hopefully they can all go and kick on.

“We are looking long term within these two years to try to push them on, with the aim being to get them towards the first team.”

Dunfermline disbanded their under-20s squad last summer in readiness for the switch to a reserve set-up being implemented as part of the Project Brave initiative.

And Potter, who has confirmed the Pars will play in the top reserve league, is happy with the changes.

He said: “Personally, I am glad that we will have a reserve team here; I think it improves the young boys.

“Our team will be pretty much under-18s, with a few slightly older ones and possibly a few first-team squad players.

“In the main, we will be a young team and they will continue to play some under-18 games for the academy as well.”

Pars coach John Potter.