Lewis Stevenson loving Hibs call by Nick Montgomery that takes 'b****' amid depressing statistic

Lewis Stevenson insists Scottish football needs a radical rethink so fortune can favour the brave for clubs prepared to blood youngsters.

The Hibs defender believes the fear factor created by a 12 club Premiership is stifling the flow of teenage talent but praised his own boss Nick Montgomery for having the b**** to buck the trend. Rudi Molotnikov, Josh Landers, Rory Whittaker have all made a first team breakthrough the season despite still being eligible for the under-19s and Stevenson is convinced they all have the required mindset to cope with facing Celtic tonight.

He said: "It takes b**** from the manager to put them in there. We have a tight squad this season and it probably helps the board that the manager has shown that he will play these young boys and they have done well. You need self-belief but you also can't afford to get too carried away. You still want them to show their own personality as you don't want them to be robots. It's a different world now with social media and that wasn't there when I was coming through.

"I'm always here if anyone wants to ask questions and give little bits of advice. That could be about players I have played against as I know what they like to do. You don't want to fill their heads with too much as they need to focus on the game and learn things for themselves.

"The maturity and confidence they have already is remarkable. They physically need to grow a bit but that will come in due time."

A check across the Premiership landscape shows all of our clubs are reluctant to throw in young players with just two Scottish under-12 kids starting in the round of fixtures before last weekend and Stevenson admits it shows an unhealthy aspect of our game.

He said: "It's a depressing