COLIN Nish has vowed not to shy away from using youngsters as Tranent Juniors battle for back-to-back promotions.
The Belters’ squad has been stretched due to injuries in recent weeks, with four members of the club’s under-20s side named among the substitutes in the win over Blackburn United in the club’s last outing on November 19.
Nish, who took charge following the surprise departure of Calum Elliot earlier this campaign, felt it was important that there was a pathway in place for the teenagers looking to make their way in the game.
He said: “For the club in general, we want to get young boys coming through.
“We want them to sign for Tranent knowing that they have got a chance of getting to the first team.
“It is something we want to do anyway but we have maybe been forced into it a bit with injuries.
“It is something we will keep looking to do.
“We cut the squad down a little bit when I came in and I think if you have got decent young boys we don’t want to block their pathway.”
The club’s under-20s side was launched during the close season and has enjoyed a promising start to life in Conference B of the Scottish Lowland Development Football League (SLDFL).
Cameron Hynd, Bill Fordyce, Tyler Pryde and Charlie Wilson were all named among the replacements in the Blackburn United game.
Tranent won 3-2 against their West Lothian rivals to set up a tie with Linlithgow Rose in the fourth round of the South of Scotland Challenge Cup.
Meanwhile, the team, who were not in action last weekend, are aiming to battle it out for promotion into the SPFL (Scottish Professional Football League).
Tranent sit six points behind Rangers B at the top of the Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL) at the halfway point of the campaign.
The Ibrox side are ineligible for promotion to the SPFL, which means University of Stirling are the frontrunners for the play-off clash with the winners of the Scottish Highland Football League.
Only a single point separates the students in second spot from Tranent, who sit in sixth place behind East Kilbride, Spartans and Civil Service Strollers.
Nish was quick to stress that the club were not looking too far ahead as they aim to follow up on promotion from the East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) Premier Division last season.
The former Hibernian striker said: “We don’t even think about it.
“We have not spoken about it or anything and we always thought we could finish in the top eight and see where it goes, but you never know if we can stay up the top end of the table.
“We will take it one week at a time.
“We don’t look too far in front but we try to win every game.”
That impressive form is demonstrated by the fact the Foresters Park side are on a five-game unbeaten run.
The manager felt that there was more to come and pointed to the game against the league leaders, where his side were 2-1 up despite being down to 10 men.
The Glasgow outfit pulled it back to 2-2 and had a chance to win but a last-minute penalty was saved.
Nish added: “We went to Gretna and they have not been getting great results.
“We had a lot of the ball and ended up losing that game.
“That was quite disappointing.
“We drew at East Stirlingshire and went 2-0 behind but ended up coming back to draw.
“That’s a game if you are really going to be up the top end you need to win those games.”
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