OVER the years, York City have developed an enviable record for producing young footballers and handing them their first team chance.

The 18 months I have been at Bootham Crescent have proved no exception.

In that time Marc Thompson, Kieran Darlow, Leigh Wood, Scott Emmerson, John Fielding and Marc Salvati have all come through from the youth team and been given their debuts.

That is quite a high percentage and one the club can be rightly proud of.

The positive thing is they have all come in and coped well and it has not been a case of someone asking "why is he playing? ".

They have got in on merit in the first place and they have adapted well.

However, probably as much a skill as knowing when youngsters are ready to take their chance is knowing when to leave them out, as happened with John Fielding and Richard Cooper only recently.

John came in after the first game of the season and did very, very well but after the Bristol Rovers game I decided to leave him out for the home game with Plymouth last week.

He knew himself he was starting to tire mentally more than physically and the time was right to give him a rest.

People seem to forget Richard had hardly had any first team experience when he first came to City at the end of last season but was virtually an ever-present until I left him out for the Luton game.

He wasn't quite firing on all cylinders at the time and again I felt the time was right to give him a breather.

As I have said, it's having the experience to know when is the right time and when is the wrong time to leave them out or bring them back in.

Another important point has been the sort of experience the youngsters have all been managing to get.

Last year, Leigh Wood and Scott Emmerson both came in a did very, very good jobs at what could be said was the wrong time when the team was struggling.

Again, they had to come out of the side after a time, but it was certainly good experience for them.

John Fielding played nine games on the bounce, which is good, while Marc Salvati's experience has been different again, he's started a game and been on the bench a few times.

They have all picked up experience and in different ways, which is a bonus and, when they do come back in, they will be stronger for it.

They'll know what to expect and it won't quite feel so new.

As I said in a piece a couple of weeks ago, you try and treat them like your sons both in terms of their welfare and their future careers as footballers.

I'm very keen to look after them in all aspects and I certainly don't want to overburden them.

It is an obvious step up from youth or reserve team football into the first team.

Physically it is very demanding, but as I indicated with the decision to leave out John Fielding, it can also be very tiring mentally.

Indeed, the mental side of things is perhaps more important than the physical when it comes to deciding whether to give a youngster a rest.

Once they have got used to the pace of the game the fitness isn't much of a problem; as young lads they are not going to tire that much physically, they are going to tire from a mental fatigue because it is so different.

There are so many new challenges to overcome, there's an awful lot for them to take in.

For example, in today's world, they are under the microscope a lot more in terms of the media. That is just one area that will be new to them when they first come into the side.

I don't like them to be put under the spotlight too much because it is hard enough just going out and playing.

But a softly, softly approach can give them a taste and once they have had a good run and it's not strange to them they can only develop.

The experience the youngsters have got in recent months should not be underestimated in terms of their future development, but it will be to everyone's benefit that I continue to treat them with kid gloves.