Hecky Resists Calls to Play Youngsters

Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom will not be blooding youngsters for the remainder of the season despite many fans calling for him to do just that.

Many Barnsley fans now feel that our season is over and instead of playing loan players we should be giving our own youngsters game time.

Hecky told BBC radio Sheffield that he feels that sends out the wrong message and that the club are still aiming for a play-off spot while ever it is mathematically possible to get there.

He also went on to add that young players won`t be thrown in to the team just to blood them and that they will only be picked when they deserve picking.

I must admit, I do see both sides to this argument.

From the fans point of view, why are we playing players who don`t belong to us, who are going to leave at the end of the season and not return when we could be preparing our own players for next season?

On the other hand, the club need to finish as high as possible and winning games is what the manager is paid to do.

If he were to throw a load of youngsters in to the first team and we were to lose every game for the rest of the season then surely that would do more harm than good?

The confidence of those young lads would be knocked as well as that of the current first team regulars.

All the momentum that we have built to this point and the morale that this squad has would be in danger of totally evaporating making next season an almost impossible task.

Whilst I would love to see some more academy graduates making their first team breakthrough, I think I have to agree with Hecky on this and it`s about picking the best team available for every single game.