Dunfermline Athletic Youth players Scott Sutherland and John-James Henderson have been selected for the National U15 squad for the trip to Switzerland next week for the build up to next season's Victory Shield squad. Scott and John-James who both play with Dunfermline Athletic's U15's squad have made it through to the final 20 players in the country after coming through the selection process over the last six months. The team play a couple of matches against Switzerland during their week long stay between 8th and 13th September.

 

Dunfermline Athletic's Head of Youth Department Stephen Wright said,

 

"This is fantastic for the boys and again it gives everyone a huge boost within our Youth Department. The boys have worked very hard and deserve all the credit for this. Only Celtic and Rangers have more players in the final squad, which makes this achievement even more remarkable".

 

It seems ironic that this season Dunfermline Athletic's U13's, U14's, U15's and U17's were moved out of the SFA Elite Games Programme because they were deemed to have not produced enough players for their first team or the national teams during the last five years. Scott and John-James are the only two players in the squad that are not involved in this season's Elite Games Programme. Stephen, continued,

 

"To date 55% of players in our current first team squad are made up of players who have come through our youth system in the last three years, also, the SFA wanted us to take part in the U20's league again this season after we reached the final of the youth cup so I firmly believe we must be doing something right."