YORK City player-manager Chris Brass is urging the club's fresh faces to change the complexion of Bootham Crescent after handing senior duties to a hat-trick of young starlets.

The youngest manager in the Football League has thrown down the gauntlet to City's young guns after pledging youth will get its chance next season.

The 27-year-old Brass has already underlined his commitment to youth by adding second-year trainee goalkeeper David Stockdale, aged just 17, who made his first team debut at the end of last season, and third-years Graeme Law and Levent Yalcin to the first team squad.

Striker Yalcin, a Turkish Under-19 international, has played in the City first team, making a handful of substitute appearances before injury curtailed his involvement last time out.

Full-back Law, a Scottish Under-18 international, has also been involved in the first team squad on a number of occasions over the previous 18 months but has still to make his senior debut.

While the club's tight finances have dictated the need for a smaller and younger squad, Brass maintains it is talent more than cash concerns that has the City chief pledging to give youth its fling.

"David (Stockdale) showed an awful lot of potential last season when he came on in leaps and bounds. He is a young lad but has a great attitude and I have a lot of faith in him," Brass told the Evening Press.

"But I think a lot of the youngsters will have a part to play. This is their chance now.

"In days of old a lot of doors have been shut on the younger players but now I think they will have a major part to play.

"Even last season, they played an awful lot of reserve games and showed a lot of potential.

"It is up to them now to prove they can step up to the next grade."

The club's remaining third-year trainees all established themselves as second string regulars while first-year scholars Nathan Kamara and Robbie Haw both made their reserve team debuts towards the end of the season.

Brass added: "A lot of the youngsters will continue to form the basis of the reserve team. It is a good standard and not a lot of kids at their age get a chance to sample reserve team football.

"It means if they are going to make it they will progress a lot quicker here than they would at an academy with 30 or 40 professionals to compete with.

"I will be telling the young lads they have got a chance and it is up to them to take it."

Brass hopes the fact he has been appointed to the position of player-boss at the age of 27 will help to inspire City's youngsters.

He said: "All the second years who are coming through to their final year this year have got a realistic chance of figuring in the first team this year.

"We have signed a lot of good first years on now and some of them have already experienced reserve team football. To do that as a 15 or 16-year-old is a big feather in your cap."

Updated: 11:12 Friday, July 04, 2003