There were fewer opportunities than usual for young players in Tuesday night’s Jersey Mike’s Subs Trophy game

Academy prospects must be able to see a pathway towards the first-team but that is proving hard at the moment for MK Dons.

Head coach Paul Warne has been tasked with guiding the club towards the Championship this season, with the club’s recruitment policy to find tried and tested taking precedence over developing youngsters from the junior ranks.

Historically, the EFL Trophy has been that proving grounds for countless young Dons over the years - the likes of Brandon Thomas-Asante, David Kasumu and Sam Nombe to name but a few all cutting their teeth in the competition.

On Tuesday night against Crawley Town though, Warne named a strong side littered with regular first-team players, with academy players named on the bench rather in the starting line-up. As those first-team players tightened their grip on the game though, taking a 4-0 lead in the second-half, Warne was able to give time to five youngsters - Sim Troso, Jack Burke, Rian Silver and debutants Elisha Boateng and Jack Perniskie - in the latter stages.

A big contributing factor to the lack of opportunity for the younger players comes as a result of a lengthy gap between League One games thanks to international call-ups for both Barnsley and Bromley, postponing games. With 23 days between competitive games, Warne is keen to see his players keeping match-sharp, especially with so many of his senior squad left waiting for their opportunities of late.

The cost though is paid for by those academy players who, in previous seasons, would have played a more prominent part in the Trophy games.

While, for now at least, Warne admits it is hard to see a direct path from academy to first-team, even with the Trophy, he said any player who proves to be good enough will always be considered to feature regardless of which competition Dons are competing in.

“There has to be a pathway and at the moment there isn’t because I’ve got 22 fit pros,” he said. “And that’s not the fault of the academy players, but if they’re good enough they’ll get in.

“We’ve seen it here in years gone by that if someone is 16 and good enough, they can still get in the first team.

“I see some really good development shoots, but we’re an older team, an experienced team. It’s not like we’ve got a lot of young players in there, they’re all senior pros really.

“It’s a really good test for the academy lads to try and get in, and if they do it’s because they deserve it. I don’t care if they’re 16 or 36, I want the best players to come into the side and play.”

He continued: “Fran (Constancio-Calvo, coach of the development squad) and Lewie (Dean Lewington) have done amazing things in charge of the U21s in the last year.

“I wanted to bring the academy lads on sooner (against Crawley) than I did, but it was important we won the game. I want to bring players through and develop them but first and foremost I wanted to win.”