David Hodgson has hit back at suggestions he is ignoring Darlington's young players and says he would love to see a flourishing youth set-up at the club.

Teenage left-back Alex Janes was set for his debut at Leyton Orient on Saturday until Hodgson managed to bring in Robbie Stockdale on loan at the 11th hour.

Janes would have become the first player to emerge from Martin Gray's youth team since Richard Logan made one appearance as a substitute in March last season.

Logan has not been seen in the first team since while, in being a non-playing substitute, Janes followed the likes of Gavin Parkin, Sean Reay and Mark McLeod.

Hodgson defended his approach, saying: "There seems to be a big thing about me not playing young players - it's a load of garbage.

"On Saturday we had two kids on the bench and Alex would have got a run-out towards the end if we did not have to make substitutions because of injury.

"I have played Kasper Schmeicel, Kyle Lafferty and Paul Hopkins, who are all kids, and the one thing I would say is that if a youngster gets a chance it's because he deserves it.''

Of the 33 players to have turned out for Darlington this season, eight have been loan signings and Hodgson believes he must bide his time before throwing one of Quakers' own youngsters into action.

He would like another Adam Reed, Robbie Blake or Sean Gregan to come through the ranks, all players he sold in the 1990s for a profit, and he said: "I can assure you I do want our youth system to work because if it does we save money.

"We would save on wages and we could also make money on selling them and that is the only way of taking us forward as the gate receipts alone have not been sufficient to keep this club going.

"There's three or four kids who on their day can be very interesting. It's OK people saying put a kid in the team, but if they have a really bad game they can lose the confidence of the public and their own confidence.

"The best time to do it is when you can be sure the lad is protected or when you're in a no-win situation which would mean the player has nothing to lose.

"You're always taking a risk when putting a kid in the team."

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