Mark Kennedy is hoping to get some of Swindon Town’s under-18s exposure to first-team action in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

Last season saw Swindon hand 14 members of their under-18s side minutes in the first team, with many of them getting their opportunity during BSM Trophy matches. 

Following on from that successful year across the board for the academy, players like Botan Ameen and George Alston will be looking to make their mark on the senior side.

Ahead of facing Bristol Rovers in that competition, Kennedy said he was hopeful of giving some more of another exciting crop of young players a chance.

He said: “This cup competition allows us to get them involved, although we didn’t do it at Exeter we always had a plan to use this to help their development.

“Over the course of the three games we wanted to make sure that there was a fair amount of time to maximise that and that is what we will do.”

As part of their ethos for developing the club’s own talent, Town have a special training session each week to help the under-18 players integrate with the first-team squad.

Kennedy added that the club’s emphasis on developing their academy talents was a key reason why he felt he would fit well at Swindon.

He said: “One of the main reasons I came to the club was because of the philosophy around youth development.

“My background has always been around development and I take great pride in the number of players that I have had who have gone on to play in the first team, everybody can have a debut but in terms of minutes played, I am very proud of that as a coach.

“We have a pathway group every week, for example, tomorrow [Tuesday] there will be a session with a group of players not involved in the game and a core group of younger players.

“That is a weekly thing and a really powerful thing that not only do we do it but the first team coach it as a collective.

“People like Marcus [Bignot] and Gav [Gunning] are very passionate about it, if you look at Marcus’ background and what he has done and Gav as well, who is starting out on his journey but will be a very good coach.

“It is a very big part of the club’s DNA and I am proud to be part of it.”