STAN Ternent gave the clearest indication yet that he is happy to give his young players a chance when Matthew O'Neill was named on the bench for the trip to Derby County on Saturday.

The 18-year-old striker has earned his call to first team duty by performing consistently well for first the youth side and then the reserves in his two years as a scholar at Turf Moor.

His latest outing for the reserves was a lively front running display against Sheffield United last Wednesday that was witnessed by Ternent.

O'Neill has been handed the number 11 shirt as a squad number and he will be hoping to be involved with the first team again.

While he was on senior duty at the weekend, his fellow youth team players were getting off to a winning start to their Football League Youth Alliance Cup campaign at Wigan on Saturday morning.

It took a late goal from substitute Robert Grimes to secure the victory on a good day for two players who have had their fair share of injury problems, Grimes and Wales youth international Rhys Carpenter.

It was in the early weeks of last season that Grimes broke his ankle in a match against Preston North End but he has worked hard to get back to fitness and return to the team.

As for Carpenter, he has been laid low with a back problem, the latest in a run of problems that have affected him since he came to Burnley last season.

"It was good to see Rhys Carpenter back in action and I said to him before the game that he was only going to play for an hour," said youth team boss Terry Pashley.

"He will be a bit stiff now but it's important he gets match fitness and he will be a good player for us."

The match was not the best quality but Pashley was at least happy with the way his side improved throughout the game.

"It was a scrappy game really," he admitted. "It was poor, particularly in the first half," but we got better as the game went on."

Mark Rasmussen, who netted a late winner the previous week, opened the scoring in the 20th minute but the Clarets were pegged back by a goal for the home side after the interval.

"The lads kept going and that's a good sign," said Pashley who will now be targeting progression in the competition as they continue the round robin group games with a trip to Blackpool at the weekend.

The Clarets fate could then be decided by the result of their final game when Preston are the visitors to Gawthorpe the following week as North End beat Blackpool 2-1 on Saturday.