MICHAEL Duff wants his Burnley Under-18s to follow in the footsteps of the senior team by sticking closely to Sean Dyche's 'mixed football' philosophy.

Duff took charge of the youth team for the first time last season and came within two points of taking the Youth Alliance title, winning nine and drawing one of their final 10 league games to almost haul leaders Blackpool in.

He may have been a centre back by trade but Duff's first team in management were a free scoring outfit, plundering 64 goals in just 28 games, but the Clarets legend wants his team to be flexible in style.

"We conceded a lot as well," the 39-year-old said. "There was a lot of goals. I’m no different to anyone else, I want my centre forward to score goals and my centre half to keep a clean sheet.

"One thing we had in the team this year was pace, especially at the top end of the pitch, we were really lucky with that.

"We were trying to get a blend of good footballers. We’re not a tippy-tappy, possession based academy team where we insist the goalkeeper rolls it from the back every time.

"We want them to make the right decision. If it’s on to play out from the back play, if it’s not don’t.

"It’s having that philosophy. The gaffer talks about mixed football and we’re the same, we try and do the same thing, because if they’re setting up into a really high press you don’t want your goalie playing into it, because it’s not a good decision.

"It’s making as many right decisions as you can and the best players make the right decisions at crucial times."

The Clarets late-season surge almost took them to Youth Alliance glory, and while Duff would have liked them to claim the title he is adamant development has to come first at under-18 level.

"It’s not the be all and end all. They won’t be writing on their CV ‘runners up in the youth league’," he said.

"But we set them a challenge with 10 games to go, and they won nine and drew one. It wasn’t at the detriment of development.

"We want them to win, but the key thing we say to them is ‘don’t worry about the result, worry about the performance’. Especially in the league we were in because we were one of the better teams. If we did the right things the result takes care of itself.

"That is the line we use. I’ll worry about the result, you worry about your performance and why you’re in the team and if everything else ties in you’ll win.

"It might be tougher next year, they might play really well and get beat. Fine. Norwich in the Youth Cup was a good example of that. We lost 4-0, we were delighted with them, because we did everything that we asked of them. We should have gone in winning at half-time, didn’t and then got beat 4-0. The lungs were spilling out of their mouth at the end because they were done.

"It was a perfect game for us to say after ‘see, we’re not worried about results, it’s performances that are key’."