What Hibs' defeat by Dundee in SPFL Reserve Cup told us about the club's development squad and youngsters

So what, if anything, did Hibs’ SPFL Reserve Cup defeat by Dundee tell us about the club’s approach to youth and youngsters?

Much has been made of the Easter Road side’s approach to development: snapping up promising youngsters from across the globe to supplement the existing academy players and, in a perfect world, lead a few of them along the pathway to the first team.

At the moment the club is running a men’s senior team, a women’s team, a development side, and a sprawling academy, although the under-19 age limit for the UEFA Youth League means a temporary additional group between the under-18s and the development team. Understandably the majority of fans are concerned with the first team, and the first team only. They want positive results, high-table finishes, and European football.

Even last season when the under-18s were swatting teams aside on a regular basis, there weren’t an awful lot of spectators besides parents and family.

There is perhaps increased interest in the youngsters because of their exploits last season but it seems to be if it doesn’t concern the men’s first-team squad, it’s barely on the radar for most supporters.

And maybe Hibs need to take a bit of ownership on that front. Other clubs have been noticeably better at promoting their youth players on social media while the Easter Road side was relatively late to the party and is still playing catch-up to a certain degree.

Turning the club around

Hibs are doing a lot of good things at the moment. The commercial side of the club has been overhauled and while it hasn’t been without issues, such as the Sportemon Go episode, it has been an improvement on what went before.

The stadium has been refurbished inside and out, Hibs Kids has been revamped, the training centre has been upgraded, and there are further off-field initiatives being carried out in the community.

It’s probably too early to say if the recruitment team has got it right with the majority of the new signings although the return of Martin Boyle and acquisitions of David Marshall and Marijan Čabraja have solved a couple of glaring positional issues in the squad and there has been the obvious change in the dugout with Lee Johnson’s appointment.

If owner Ron Gordon is serious about turning Hibs into a consistent force in Scottish football then so far, it would seem that things are looking broadly positive – but what about the slow burn progress of the development squad?

A stepping stone

The achievements of the wee Hibees – title-winners and reaching the last four of the Youth Cup – should not be ignored but it should also be stressed that all the games, league and cup, were played against other youngsters.

The nucleus of last year’s under-18s have played together for a significant amount of time. Passes were telepathic, movement subconscious, runs into space automatic. Players who weren’t regular starters fitted in seamlessly when called upon. They were fun to watch when the men’s first team wasn’t.

Former Hibs boss Shaun Maloney handed a debut to one of them – Josh O’Connor – in a 3-1 defeat by Aberdeen at Pittodrie. Four more made their debut on the final day of the season in that 4-0 dead-rubber win against St Johnstone under interim boss David Gray – Murray Aiken, Jacob Blaney, Robbie Hamilton, and Oscar MacIntyre.

Fans questioned why they hadn’t been given a chance earlier when Hibs were a) struggling for goals and b) ravaged by injury but it is a big step up from under-18s football to the Scottish Premiership. Bar Blaney, all of the youngsters who made their senior bow earlier this year lined up against a Dundee team that, while not full strength, had a few very experienced first-teamers in it.