Pete Oliver talks to one of Burnley's bright young hopes

CHRIS Scott has come a long way in a short time.

The player who failed to make the grade at the start of his Burnley apprenticeship is now filling the number two shirt previously worn by his father Derek in the first-team at Turf Moor.

It's a remarkable rise through the ranks for the 18-year-old who hails from a family steeped in claret and blue history.

"It did not start too well to be honest," admitted Chris, whose grand-dad Brian Miller was a member of Burnley's 1960 championship-winning side. "I found my first pre-season very hard. I had just left school and started training and I found the running very hard. We played Blackpool in the first game and I didn't get in the team."

That was the first setback the youngster had received after playing representative schools football with the likes of Blackburn Rovers' rising start David Dunn from an early age, and joining Burnley's school of excellence under the watchful eye of Joe Jakub and David Hamilton at 11.

But it didn't take long for him to get on the right track - even if there was a future world star waiting to test his early progress to the full. "My mum and dad told me to keep working hard and it will come. I have always been positive. You have nothing to lose and you have got to go for it.

"A couple of months later I was in the youth team and the reserves. We went to Newcastle in the FA Youth Cup and then to Liverpool who had Michael Owen.

"He was the best player I have ever played against. He was the difference between the two sides and scored a hat-trick."

Scott was a central defender in those days which explains his admiration for former Burnley skipper Steve Davis and Middlesbrough's ex-Manchester United and England bulwark Gary Pallister.

However, it wasn't only the likes of Owen who made it a testing path for the teenage hopeful who was learning his trade under Terry Pashley and Alan Harper but whose long-term future was in the hands of others.

"It was hard with different managers," he admitted. "Adrian Heath knew everyone but in my second year as an apprentice when Chris Waddle came in he didn't know anybody. "I had to knuckle down and try and keep doing what I had been in the reserves but he brought in a lot of players so I actually played more in the reserves as a first-year apprentice than I did in my second year.

"I only played seven or eight times because he had so many experienced players."

But that was still enough - presumably along with a word from his coaching staff - to persuade Waddle to fulfill Scott's ambition of a first professional contract at the end of last season.

Yet no sooner had the ink dried and Waddle was on his way to be replaced a couple of weeks later by Stan Ternent.

Now established as a right-back, Scott felt he had benefitted from a good pre-season under Ternent and had joined the first-team squad on the training ground at Gawthorpe.

Even so, it was a still suprise when he was withdrawn from the 'A' team to join an injury-hit squad to face York City three League games into the season. Events on that day have been well documented as Ternent withdrew Lee Howey and Steve Blatherwick at half-time and handed Scott and former YTS colleague Matt Heywood their big chance.

Scott's proud family were there to watch him play and encouraged him to enjoy the occasion while hoping there would be more to come.

"They said that it might be my one moment of glory but to keep my feet on the ground and try and keep my name on the team-sheet," said Chris who, as remarkable as it seems, is too young to remember his dad playing for Burnley despite the fact that he didn't leave Turf Moor until 1985.

"I watched him play for Bolton Wanderers and went to Wembley to watch him once, although I was only six," Chris added.

Since that appearance against York there has been only one game where Scott hasn't figured on the team-sheet, although his full debut didn't come until the visit of Wycombe Wanderers two Saturdays ago.

"The manager rang my mum and dad to say I was playing but told them not to tell me so that I would get a good night's sleep." They kept their word and it was only shortly before the game that he knew he was in from the start.

"I had gone from playing in front of about 20 people at Gawthorpe to 10,000 at Turf Moor. I stood in the tunnel and the lads I had been a YTS with were shaking my hand. It was nice," he said.

Scott has taken his promotion in his stride and after two faultless performances is likely to face Wigan on Saturday, although his mature displays - which he stresses can still get better as his confidence grows - bely a slight feeling of disbelief.

The youngster is level-headed enough, however, to know that football is a game of opportunities which must be seized. Bad breaks for some are good news for others.

And after all, he has a new contract to win when his current deal runs out in the summer.

"That's the main aim. It's a team game on the pitch but you have got to be self-centred and so focussed." He's learning fast.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.