Blackpool legend Brett Ormerod has reflected on his pathway into first-team football following the recent opportunities for some of the Seasiders’ youngsters - including Terry Bondo who featured off the bench against Harrogate Town on Tuesday night.

It’s fantastic when you first get that chance, it can be a bit surreal sometimes and a bit daunting. What it does do, it shows the manager and the coaching staff have been watching your hard work and think you’re at a level to test you in the first-team.

Hopefully the chance gives the lads the incentive to get their heads down and work harder, because football is a game where you’ve always got to prove yourself.

Teams generally now look for younger players, I think the average age of the squads is a lot lower than it used to be.

The academies are up and running. You used to just play for the youth team, but now you’re prepped. They eat well and they’ve got fitness plans, so by the time they’re 16 or 17, their bodies are usually a lot more developed. The fitness is a lot better than if they had come through during my era.

Football is always changing, and it’s always improving.

As a lad who supported the club, coming through at Blackburn Rovers was special for me. I was there when they won the Prem.

I was Alan Shearer’s boot boy for the two years I was there as an apprentice. The club signed some really top players, I remember David Batty walking through the door.

Being around the first-team was a fantastic experience, but we didn’t dare to speak. You kept your gob shut, and you kept your head down.

My year was the last one to just sign apprenticeship forms. James Beattie was a year younger, and his year was the first one to get offered pros on top of their apprenticeship.

You had to be playing in the reserves and pushing towards the first-team; if you weren't then you’d have nowhere else to go and you’d be released, which is what happened to me.

I was a late developer anyway, so by the time I was 18, I was still starting to grow.

There were no U18s, U21s and U23s; by the time I was 23 I was a first-team player at Blackpool playing every week. I think if you’re not in and around the first-team at that age then you should be looking to move on to get yourself in it.

I like players who get themselves out on loan because that’s where they are going to learn more about themselves and what the job is about.

After leaving Blackburn, I went to Accrington Stanley where I was thrown into the deep end. It was 100mph, the pitches were terrible, and I’ve seen many a leg broken with some of the tackles.

It was brutal, but it made you grow up very quickly. It certainly prepared me, and I learnt more than I ever did in Rovers’ youth team or reserves.

Players mature differently both physically and mentally, and some aren’t ready for that.

There’s a couple of Stanley lads who had the chance to leave at youth level, but are now playing in the first-team. They wouldn’t have got that at Manchester City or United, their development has come on a hell of a lot more.

Unless you’re absolutely exceptional at a big club, you’re better off coming through at a lower one because you’ll get that opportunity.

Harry Kane went to a number of Championship clubs when he was at Spurs. He didn’t always hit the ground running, but he learnt his trade very early on, and it was brilliant for his development.