TWO Alloa Athletic youth stars have caught the eye of Premiership giants Everton after the English side sent scouts north to run the rule over the pair.

Striker Scott Hynd and defender Russell McLean are being monitored by the Merseysiders along with a number of clubs north of the border, but for Wasps youth supremo Graeme Liveston, he always believed it was only a matter of time.

16-year-old McLean, who is currently sitting his highers in his final year at high school, has continued to improve through exposure to training and games in the SPFL Development league that led to a week-long trial with Coventry City before Christmas.

While Hynd is one of the club’s new full time apprentices and the Head of Youth reckons he has reaped the benefit of day-to-day coaching from manager Barry Smith.

Liveston told Advertiser sport: “Scott Hynd has been on the Everton radar for while now and he must’ve activated the process, but they have also shown interest in Russell McLean as well. He has come back from a trial down at Coventry City. He was there for a week and I’ve had reports that he did very well and they remain interested in him.

“The problem for Russell is he is right in the middle of six highers so he will probably have to wait until the summer, but it proves how highly he is rated. Everton weren’t sending a Scottish scout, but one of their top men so they have clearly been keeping tabs on them for a while.

“I think that is a great reflection on what we are doing here at Alloa with our kids. I genuinely think we have some real talent for the future here and it is plain to see the impact the full time training is having on the likes of Scott in particular. A lot of the work we do here at the club is away from the public eye, but these kind of links shows that hard work is paying off.

“The exposure to training sessions with myself or Barry Smith every day is beginning to payoff and you only have to look to the improvement in someone like Scott Hynd to see the proof of that. He has really benefitted from the access to the first team manager on a daily basis and Barry is great with them.” Liveston also reckons the club’s new full time training with the apprenticeship kids can be a real asset for them in the future as it has opened the door for young English players to be brought to the club and have them train and develop everyday.

He said: “I think it is a great thing for the club as well having the full time element means that signing players from England is a workable plan now because they have somewhere to train through the week.

“We have seen the benefit of that in the arrival of Isaac Layne. He did extremely well in his first game against Stirling Albion in the development league.

“To score two goals, link really with with Hynd up top and show some real chemistry together as a pairing just goes to show the potential for this to reap some real benefits going forward for the club.” The former Dundee United youth coach, who has brought through the likes of Duncan Ferguson and David Goodwillie in the past, now believes he has a new crop of youngsters starting to flourish in the U17s.

Liveston added: “We also have a younger crop coming through with the likes of Ryan Hoggan, who to me looks like he has the potential to be very special, so we are always trying to find that next real special talent.”