GRIMSBY Town's young guns continue to impress Paul Hurst after helping to guide the Mariners into round two of the FA Trophy.
Four of the current Youth team were involved in the replay victory over Coalville Town at Blundell Park last week.
After two substitute appearances, Caine Winfarrah made his first start for the club's senior side, and he was joined by centre-half Ellis Humble for his first-team action debut.
Team-mate Paul Walker had another taste of the big-time in the second half, with Tom Charlesworth another to make his bow in the closing stages.
Add to that former Youth-teamers Andi Thanoj and Dayle Southwell – who netted a hat-trick – and the future certainly looks bright for the club.
Boss Hurst was pleased with the youngers' impact, and hinted that some of them may be involved again in this weekend's second round clash at Barnet.
"It was good experience for the Youth team players," he said.
"Caine and Paul have had some of that already, in small parts.
"But to start in a first-team game, be around the dressing room, hear me pre-match, play in front of a bigger crowd and against proper men – they're all things they can take away.
"Hopefully they will use to learn and to motivate themselves moving forward."
Winfarrah began the 3-0 victory over Coalville at left-back before reverting to his more familiar left-midfield role for the final 20 minutes.
"Caine did well," Hurst added on the 17-year-old. "He played two positions for us – starting at left-back which I don't think is his natural role in terms of his positioning just yet. Stuart Watkiss (head of Youth) has done some work with him on that and he'll only get better by playing there more often.
"And when he went on the wing, he's obviously quite comfortable with that. He can run with the ball well, he's got decent pace, he's quite comfortable on it and doesn't shy away from the ball.
"It's nice that he can play either position on that left-hand side, and that's something we'll be looking to try to develop with him and see how far he can go."
Another local lad, Humble – also 17 years old – also came through 90 minutes, playing alongside the experienced Chris Doig at the heart of Town's defence.
"I think Ellis started a little bit nervy, once or twice on the ball, and then he settled into the game well," said Hurst.
"Ellis is a good footballing centre-half – he reads the game quite well and sometimes he'll take it on his chest instead of heading it.
"That was a good game for him first up, against the Coalville striker Ben Saunders, who is very physical and hard to get the ball off.
"It was a good test for him and the longer the game went on the better he got.
"One of the biggest compliments I can give him is that towards the end of the game is that I wasn't particularly noticing him, which is never a bad thing for a defender."
