Martin Canning says that the key ingredients for Hamilton's success in producing young talent lies in getting kids playing as regularly as possible, and offering opportunities at first-team level.

Youth development has been a hot topic in Scottish football over the last couple of weeks, and Canning says that it is the lifeblood of the culture at Accies.

“It’s something that the club has always prided itself on, bringing players through, and hopefully we’ll continue to do that," he said.

“There’s great work goes on through all the age-groups and when they get up to full-time football we’ll give them the opportunity. If they’re good enough to play, they’ll play.

“We don’t have a huge budget where we can go and sign players left, right and centre, so we rely on that and fortunately enough we’ve been able to do it.

“For us, it’s part of our process and it’s something that you associate with the club.

“I think the pro-youth system is working, but it’s a difficult one. I took the under-17s before I took this job, and it can be a big jump between the age-groups. Probably from 15s up it can be difficult for kids.

“The good kids will do well but the ones who haven’t maybe developed as much as others can find it difficult to do so, because they will have a lack of game-time.

"That isn’t ideal, particularly at that age when you need to be playing week-in, week-out.

“You used to play with your school on a Saturday morning, your boys club in the afternoon and then your pro-youth game on a Sunday, so you had three games a weekend.

“I remember going to some boys’ club games after playing for the school with no lunch in between, so you were so weak that you had to come off. We loved it though!

“I think Friday night was the only night you never did anything, you’d be training every other night then playing all weekend.

“How do you know if that was best or if this situation just now is best though? I think there’s a balance to be struck.

“I can’t speak for other clubs, but I know that here it’s all about getting the kids touching the ball. It’s all about getting them into as many games as they can and getting as many touches as they can.

“I don’t think there’s any magic formula we’ve got, but all the kids here know that if they work hard and they’re good enough then they’ll get an opportunity."