East Kilbride Lowland League Development Squad kids on path to success, says boss

East Kilbride U20s boss Martin Fellowes reckons the Lowland League’s development system sets his players up for a good crack at senior level.

Last season, the Kilby youngsters finished second in the fifth tier’s elite development league, Conference A, competing alongside SPFL clubs Edinburgh City, East Fife, Kelty Hearts and Stirling Albion, alongside a host of teams Kevin Rutkiewicz’s men face week to week.

It has proven fruitful with plenty of debuts handed to academy products and five of them - Ross Taylor, Aidan McDonald, Ross Smith, Reece McGuire, and Aidan Fellowes - have been fully promoted to senior level for this season.

It came after a large period of restructuring within the youth football system and Fellowes, who is also the first team kitman, reckons it’s been handled expertly.

He explained: “The boys have been playing in the league where it’s been slightly different because of the involvement of some SPFL teams like Edinburgh City and East Fife.

“There’s been a mixture of teams in the Lowland and leagues above so it’s been quite good. Results have been quite good.

“The league has been pretty good. They have had to deal with a lot. The league went from 16 teams to 68 overnight with the West of Scotland Football League trying to put loads of teams in.

“There’s been a lot of restructuring going on so I think they have done a really good job making it competitive.

“They have made it travel-friendly. There’s a bit of travel involved in ours as it’s more competition-based.

“But our boys have bought into travelling to places like East Fife and Kelty Hearts on a Friday night. They like going to places with good set-ups.”

Success has been found in promoting from within at K-Park and Fellowes is hopeful this term’s