BURNLEY this week took the bold step of releasing all six second and third year apprentices.

The shock decision appears to fly in the face of the great strides being made at youth level but as the Telegraph Sports team discovered, those making the big decisions are confident of the progress being made at Turf Moor.

SCRATCH the surface and all appeared to be going swimmingly for Burnley's youth team.

Seventeen wins in their opening 19 games was a blistering start to the season and only in recent weeks has the double dose of Alliance League and reserve team football appeared to catch up with the small band of teenagers under the watchful eyes of Vince Overson and Terry Pashley.

But break through the shiny veneer of those impressive results and the underlying reasons behind the club's decision to release six senior apprentices are easily exposed.

Overson, Burnley FCs head of youth development, explained: "Some will agree with this decision and others will disagree, but at the end of the day decisions have to be made by those in charge and who better than those qualified?

"It is the hardest part of the job because we are fully aware of the impact such a decision has on a young boy's life. But we have to act in the best interests of the club.

"At a youth level we compete with the likes of Rochdale, Preston, Tranmere and Bury, but the difference is that some players in their youth teams will progress into their first team a hell of a lot easier because it's a lower level of football.

"We have to be realistic in what the youth development can provide for the manager and this decision was based on how many of the lads we feel could make the progression from youth team to Championship level.

"At any club the first team is what matters and we've had two come through this year in Kyle Lafferty and Chris McCann.

"I think the club are quite happy with such a return, but I don't think you could ever put a number on the average number any team looks to bring through because there are so many variables at that tender age, in areas like ability and growth.

"The players we have released could probably play for the smaller clubs mentioned and I really hope they prove us wrong and go higher. But the decision has been made purely on how many players could step up and we feel we have already got the two who can in Chris and Kyle."

Below first team football, Burnley are not alone in cutting their cloth accordingly.

Championship rivals Crewe, Derby and more recently Preston North End have all taken the extreme measure of scrapping reserve teams.

Overson added: "We would love nothing more than to provide a steady stream of players, but we have to remain realistic.

"It is a fact that, population wise, we are the smallest town in the Championship and it's not like the old days of the scouting network, where you could sign boys from anywhere in the country.

"Nowadays players have to live a maximum of an hour and a half from Burnley, but as soon as we start going off our own doorstep we are on Blackburn, Manchester United, City or Liverpool territory and they are the big guns in terms of Academy facilities, so obviously our choice of players is limited.

"We have to be watertight with the lads we have and we do a good job in that respect because there are not players from the Burnley area who slip through the net."

dbentley@the-let.co.uk