ACCRINGTON Stanley legend Paul Mullin says he has been proud to watch son Alex’s progress at Burnley.

The 17-year-old midfielder is currently in the Clarets’ youth set-up and broke into the reserve team squad towards the end of the 2010/11 campaign.

Alex will now bid to follow in the footsteps of his father, who is Stanley’s all-time leading goalscorer, and uncle John, who represented both Burnley and Accrington.

Father Paul was recently forced to retire at the age of 37 because of a back injury and said: “One of the real bonuses of my slipped disc is that I’ve been able to go and see Alex play more often.

“He’s done okay so far and it’s good to see him progressing.

“He’s got a long way to go yet but he’s a level-headed lad and he will give it his best.

“He’s a lot quicker than me but he can’t head a ball, so I don’t know what’s happened with the gene pool there.”

Mullin senior, a renowned target man in a decade at Stanley, has had testimonial events held in his honour at Accrington in recent months and is hopeful of arranging a benefit match at some stage.

He will assess whether to play part-time next season once he has given his back time to settle but, going into business with former Wigan defender Gareth Griffiths as he returns to his previous career as a financial advisor, he thinks it is unlikely he will return to Stanley as a coach in the near future.

Manager John Coleman and assistant Jimmy Bell have indicated that they would consider offering him a job should a position ever become available in the future, but there are no vacancies currently with Mark Patterson proving a useful addition as first-team coach in recent times.

“The coaching staff there have done really well this season and at the moment I’m not really thinking about football,” said Mullin.

“It’s not something that’s in my mind at the moment.”