IT is about time young players got their chance in English football.

Rovers have always been good at bringing players through and I think they should look to get two or three of their Academy prospects into the first team this summer and next season.

We have got a lot of talent in the Under-23s and Under-18s and there is an opportunity for Rovers to bring some of them through.

I am not saying that we should pick a team full of young lads, that won’t work as you need the experienced older heads in there, especially in League One.

But we know we have some talented players coming through the Academy and we now have an opportunity to give them a chance.

Ryan Nyambe has shown the way and we have others who can follow suit like Willem Tomlinson.

Tony Mowbray is a manager who is known for developing young players and having faith in them, and it wouldn’t surprise me if a few are not in the starting XI come the opening day of the season.

Rovers don’t have a massive budget to be spending on players and developing your own has to be the way forward. Fans love it when one of their own comes through the ranks and it can also benefit a club like Rovers financially if they are able to sell them on, as we saw with Phil Jones a few years ago.

When I got my break I think I was 18 and it did come completely out of the blue when I came off the bench against Newcastle.

But I was never nervous at that age.

I think young players just naturally play without any fear and that is what I was like.

I was in the side for a few games, got taken out, and then was put back in a month or so later.

It took me three or four games to score but once I did my confidence went up and I never looked back.

I was lucky that the managers and coaches I had at that time stuck by me and gave me a few games.

Young players will make mistakes, but you have to have a manager who trusts in them and doesn’t give them one game and then takes them out of the side.

Any footballer needs a run of games to find form and with young players it is key.

We saw England win the Under-20 World Cup over the weekend and you look at those players and just wonder where they will be in five years time.

I can’t see many of them getting a chance at the clubs they are at.

I understand why managers are reluctant to play them because it is a risk, but it’s one you have to take, otherwise a raft of lads will just slip through the net.

Hopefully Rovers can do their bit for the development of young players, as they have in the past, and that move can lead to a successful team on the pitch at Ewood Park.