Last season their were five scholars who were awarded professional contracts and the U18s campaign ended with a Lancashire Cup victory over Burnley at Deepdale, so this season there is lot to live up for the new intake, as well as those now second years.

The youth alliance north west conference gets underway for the Lilywhites at the Springfields training ground at 10.30am on Saturday, with Bury the visitors and as a preview we spoke to youth team coach Jamie Hoyland.

Jamie, you started back at the end of June, so you've had a long pre-season, how's it gone?
It does feel like it drags on a little bit. We try to get in as many games as we can. Unfortunately we a pre-season tour to Italy which fell through due to funding, so we have had to beg, steal and borrow games. Clubs have been good and we have managed to get games on, but it does go on a little bit. Seven weeks is a long pre-season and you can't train really really hard, as the first team do, to hit the ground running, because a lot of the lads have just come straight from school. You have to be careful with them through pre-season, but they have done well and now they can't wait for it to start.

Those first year have spent the last 11 years sat at a desk in a classroom, so how much of a culture shock is it for them?
It is coming to work every day for them. Silly as it seems, a lot of people won't see playing football as that, but it is a job, you do get paid to do it. So it is being there at a certain time in the morning, being told what to do; a bit of a school mentality, but it is far more disciplined and it is something the lads want to better themselves at. It is great for the first few days and then it hits them how hard it is. Day to day training is hard work. It is a long time since I did, when I was 16, but I do remember it vividly. I remember how hard those first few weeks of pre-season are. I've said to quite a number of the first years that some of them will develop in a month and take to it like ducks to water, to others it might take six, seven, eight months or even into their second year when the penny drops and they understand what it is all about. You just have to monitor that and see how they go on.

You bring them in during the warmest weather, so in the first few weeks do you have to take a softly, softly approach and build up the training, unlike the first team where they are thrown straight into the vicious runs?
Yes, it is like that. My philosophy is that I don't have seven days to get somebody fit for our first match, I have seven weeks, so it is just building up to that. There is also a massive difference between the first years and the second years; so we have to look at the first years as a year-long development in terms of the fitness programmes. The second years have come back really well, really fit this year and now they are pushing on for different goals.

You obviously have a yearly turnover over players due to the two-year scholarship contract, so you have a significant number of new faces again this season.
It's a funny thing being a youth manager because you have a two-year cycle with a group of lads who you have picked. You become something similar to a big brother or a father figure to them as well as being a coach and a disciplinarian, but then suddenly after two years they have gone and some think you're the best coach in the world and think you're best big brother and others who get released don't. Then you have to start all over again with these new lads and they learn about you, you learn everything about them and it goes on and on. It is similar when the first team manager signs a player. He has to get used to them, but it's different with youth football because you know in two years you have to develop them and then send them away and start again.

You had a successful year last season with five gaining pro contracts and then winning the Lancashire Cup at Deepdale, are you hoping for more of the same?
Since I have been here, this being my fourth season now, we have certainly got better players coming in to the club through our recruitment and they are into an environment now that we have developed and that will show with results. Yes, we will lose some matches, but I don't expect us to lose many because of the quality players we have got now. The standards have been raised with the lads who we got through last year and we are now looking for that to be the minimum standard you have to be if you are going to get a professional contract, because I think they are good players. I am not setting myself targets that we are going to win the league or anything like that, but we want to be good. We want to have a winning mentality as well as developing players. It is easy to develop players when you are winning and you are playing good football because the confidence, as in any level of football, is good. I am hoping again for good things and at the end of the season it will be judged on how many of the second years get pro contracts.

Finally, are you looking forward to 10.30am Saturday morning?
Yes, I am. I have just given a few of the first year lads a lift back to the digs and I have asked them how they all felt about getting started and they are chomping at the bit. I know it is only at Springfields and there will only be a handful of people there, but it is their first game at a professional club and they can't wait to get going. That is the same for me. The training is great, but you want to see how they develop in the games because that is what they'll be judged on, not how good a trainer they are.

You can watch the scholars take on Bury at Springfields on Saturday morning, just take a trip down to the training ground - off Dodney Drive, Lea (PR2 1XR for those with sat navs) and see if there are any more who could be joining Barton, Collins, Mayor, Quirk and Smyth with pro contracts at the end of the season.

For details of coaching courses run by the staff at Preston North End then contact the community department, just email community@pne.com or call 0844 856 1964 and ask for the community department.