Blues boss Paul Lambert says he’ll have no qualms about fielding 17-year-old midfielder Liam Gibbs again at Plymouth on Saturday and believes young players are getting more of a chance at Town under his management than they have for some years.

Bury St Edmunds-born Gibbs made his first league start in last Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to Charlton before being left on the bench at Oxford on Tuesday.

“He’s in the squad at the minute, we’ll see how everybody is,” Lambert said when asked if he’d have any worries about involving Gibbs again at Home Park. “He’s a really good player, a really talented footballer.

“But as I’ve said before, I say it every time, he needs a little bit of time to develop and there’s no pressure.”

Reflecting on what Gibbs brings to the side, he added: “He’s really clever with the ball, he’s a really intelligent player. You only really need to tell him something once and he takes it in.

“That’s the sign of a good player, when they take it in first time then you know you’ve got a really good player on your hands. But again, without getting carried away, he has got a chance.”

Is it important that young players feel they have a chance of breaking into the senior side.

“The way our club is at the minute, which I’ve tried to explain, is that we cannot go out there and spend, unless we sell somebody,” he said.

“What the kids are getting here is chances under me, and that’s probably not happened for a number of years.

“If you take out Andre [Dozzell] the other night, the five homegrown players [that started, Armando Dobra, Jack Lankester, Luke Woolfenden and Aaron Drinan] I’m not sure they had 20 appearances between them. It just shows you that young ones are getting a chance.

“The future of the club’s massive for them. If you keep them going, keep them on the right road then they’ll be good players.”

Asked whether he can see something in the youngsters’ personalities when they step-up and train with the senior pros, Lambert said: “There is that but I think the big thing for me is keeping their feet on the ground. You can’t give them too much too soon.

“The way the modern world is and the modern young player, they get one training session and they think they’ve made it. That’s the pitfalls of it, and that’s what I don’t want to happen.

“You try and shelter them away from that glory thing just after one appearance. It’s impossible, every day of your life you have to sacrifice until you finish playing.

“And that’s my job, to try and keep their feet on the ground, not get carried away, not too much too soon, and that’s what we’ll try and do because it’s the right upbringing to give them.”

But at the same time making sure they’re confident when they’re out on the field? “One hundred per cent. When they play, what I will say to them is if you’re young enough, you’re good enough and I think that’s important.

“If they can play, I don’t have a problem with that. It’s the aftermath of it where they think they’ve arrived or ‘I’m a first-team player, I should be in there every time’.

“For however quickly you impress me, it’s very easy for a young player to go the other way and then you think to yourself ‘OK, you’re getting too aloof and too ahead of yourself’.

“That’s the secret of it, that’s why I say you have to sacrifice your life every single day as a footballer.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Upthetown1970 added 11:07 - Dec 4 Its brilliant the young players are getting chances. Gibbs for me is a fantastic talent. Watched him lots through the years and has been a real standout player over the years. Given time he will be a stand out for our first team as well that I'm sure of. Would love to see him play again this weekend. Dozzell has come on a lot and starting to show glimpses of what he can do. Wolf another who just needs a run in the team. Lancester and Dobra for me just need to release the ball a bit more to take that next step. All just my opinion having seen them all come through the academy.

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Moriarty added 11:37 - Dec 4 El Mizouni?
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FAcup78 added 11:38 - Dec 4 We certainly have some fantastic young talented players coming through. Gibbs is a creator and a goal scorer something we are crying out for at the moment and I'm sure he will produce that for us given time in the first team environment. Lambert is right not putting any pressure on our youngsters. Our club has a really bright future IF we can keep all our young players a the club. Agree totally with you Upthetown.

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istanblue added 12:56 - Dec 4 More BS from PR Paul. We all know that he's only playing the youngsters because he has to; if all the squad was fit we'd be playing the likes of Skuse, Sears and Toto week in week out to go along with other serial failures Judge and Nolan.
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BettyBlue added 16:34 - Dec 4 They're not genuine chances, they are hospital passes to save the manager.
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Bert added 16:40 - Dec 4 Lambert has played more ex Academy players this season than anyone before him. Many out of choice not just necessity as now. Time for posters to be honest even if we would prefer some action from Evans.
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BettyBlue added 18:01 - Dec 4 Robson had a tight successful first team. Who played week in week out. If someone was injured a youngsters could get his chance, and the senior players would look after the new kid. Lambert has no fixed team or set up, and one week he sticks 6 new youngsters un and hope they can carry the old dregs that are stinking the pitch out. so is Lambert really helping them or saving his own hide witn this drivel.

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Linkboy13 added 19:19 - Dec 4 Young Gibbs is a very good prospect, but i do fear we might be playing him before he is physically ready, look what happened to Dozzell and Nydam. I think if he was ready he would be going out on loan but i don't think clubs will do that at the moment. Somebody mentioned El Mizouni he's not getting much of a look in at Cambridge at the moment which says it all i think sometimes we tend to over rate and patronise our youngsters who are a pretty average bunch compared to what we have produced in the past don't forget this is league one which is pretty poor.

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Saxonblue74 added 07:46 - Dec 5 Exactly what so many were calling for. No more "journeymen", no more "final payday" for players in the twilight of their career. "Why not play our talented youth"? Well it's happening and it's not going to bring overnight success! So few comments when it comes to matters on the pitch.
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Edmundo added 13:01 - Dec 5 Good points. But maybe his comments are as much about Downes as they are about Gibbs etc
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