THE youth team players at Turf Moor swapped the training pitch for the classroom last week as they took part in an exercise introduced by the Football Association and the Football League.

Youth boss Terry Pashley explained: "In service training has been put together in order to give the players a bit of a break and get them to look at the game in a different sort of way.

"It is aimed at letting them study games from another perspective and they can give their thoughts on how football is played.

"It is a chance to bring videos in and get them to do match analysis. You might ask the strikers to look at what the forwards are doing while the defenders study the defence.

"The games we show could be anything, first team games or even international matches. The important thing is to let them form their opinions and hopefully show them a few things."

As in any classroom there will be some youngsters with lots to say and others who are keen to stay in the background but Pashley's job, like any teacher, was to get everyone involved in some way.

After the theory it is back on to the pitch this week with the youngsters preparing for their first match since being dumped out of two cups in the space of a week.

The aim is to put the heavy defeats against Manchester City and Tranmere Rovers behind them as they get ready to return to league action at the weekend.

"We travel to play Wigan on Saturday and then the lads will have a break from games for the Christmas and New Year period," said Pashley. "We will then have a rearranged game with Tranmere Rovers."

Before then some of his squad are sure to be back in action for the reserves at Wolves tomorrow night, a match that will be played at RAF Cosford.

Ronnie Jepson was pleased with the way Joel Pilkington and Andrew Leeson performed in the defeat against Rotherham at Turf Moor last week although it was a tough night for teenage keeper James Salisbury, pictured, who came in for the suspended Luigi Cennamo.

But while theory is useful in the development of young players there is no substitute for experience and Salisbury will hopefully have learned a lot from last week's match, especially about the importance of making the right decisions.