Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell says Lennon Miller is looking to add goals to his game, as the midfielder approaches his 50th first-team game.
Miller, 18, is likely to reach that milestone against Hibs at Easter Road on Saturday, and Kettlewell says that’s because he has met every challenge put his way.
That, however, is not a comparison Kettlewell makes with Motherwell’s under-18s, who crashed out of the Youth Cup with a 1-0 defeat to Ross County on Tuesday.
Miller is joint-top scorer at the club with four goals, alongside Moses Ebiye, and hopes to add to that as the Steelmen head to Edinburgh.
Kettlewell said: “Lennon gets a chance to play his 50th game this weekend for the first-team because he has shown so much quality and composure in big moments, when you’re tested physically, mentally and tactically. He is a guy who has stood up to all of those challenges.
“You get windows of opportunity where you need to show and prove to people that you can handle the demands of what is Premiership football here.
“I had a little bit of a rant for our under-18s group who I watched here through the week. They had a brilliant opportunity to perform well out on that beautiful pitch out there in the Youth Cup against Ross County, and they fluffed their lines really badly, in my opinion.
“We would love to tell players that they’re going to get 20 or 30 opportunities to impress, but sometimes the Youth Cup out there on the first-team pitch might be a huge opportunity for you, and you miss it.
“But every time you put a big task in front of Lennon, whether it be playing as a deep-lying midfielder or a more offensive midfield player, training sessions, playing against the top midfielders in this country, at no point has he come up short.
“I don’t think you’ll always get it right, you won’t always perform to an ‘8, 9 or 10 out of 10’, but I think you have to show the traits that you will be capable of, an that’s all I ever look for.
“I don’t look for it to be pitch-perfect, but I want to see aspects where you can grow and improve, and if we get a chance to coach you that you’re receptive to the short-comings within it.
“I’m trying to make a wee comparison with something I watched during the week there.
“But that is definitively a message to everyone at our club – that these windows of opportunity come.”
Kettlewell says encouraging Miller to improve his game can only help him and the club, and that will come with more goals.
He said: “We work with an individual development plan as well, and challenge each player to ensure they have a specific thing that they’re working on every single day. They have to take ownership of that and it’s safe to say that’s one thing that Lennon wants to start adding to his game.
“That has been point one on the list for him, to see if he can start seeing if he can pitch in with more goal contributions, so we’re really pleased with that.
“How we look at this is if you start to get that right and you’re 70 or 80 per cent towards that, you start to look at another element of your game, so that’s a real positive for him.”
Kettlewell says while Miller has impressed and is progressing well, he and the club aren’t concerned about where he is in the Scotland set-up, which is currently with the under-21s.
He said: “I have absolutely no concern about that [whether he might get a Scotland first-team call-up] whatsoever. I would imagine he is in that under-21 group, but all I’m concerned about is him playing well here, trying to create opportunities for himself.
“I always believe if you’re getting that right at your club, whenever you’re asked or tested, the good things will start to happen for you, and I can confirm that Lennon has absolutely no concern about that whatsoever.
“We’re not siting here feeling sorry for ourselves if he’s not in a national team that has done pretty well over a number of years.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport onX via@LanLiveSport, like us onFacebookor find us onInstagramfor the latest sports news, pictures and video.