ANY young footballer needs to be able to play in a variety of formations and at the weekend the Clarets youth side continued their education with a switch to a 3-5-2 formation.

The result was a 3-1 Youth Alliance League victory over Oldham at Gawthorpe and manager Terry Pashley claimed: "We were at sixes and sevens to begin with down our right side and they cause us a few problems but they settled down okay.

"Having watched the lads play that way it has given me more options and it is a good learning experience for them to try something a little bit different, a change of system and a change of formation.

"Being able to switch from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 can be important depending on who the opposition is and who you have available.

"To be honest we did not have a lot of option but to change it on Saturday because Paul Scott, Danny Pitham and Joel Pilkington were all injured so we did not have any choices for full backs."

The result was that striker Matty O'Neill and midfielder Stephen Richardson took the positions on either flank while Pashley went with a back three that featured one of the club's under-16 players Neil Trotman along side Ryan Townsend and Liam Eves.

Pashley also had another from that age group as a sub, Darryl Avery, giving him the chance to see how the players below youth team level are developing.

"Matty and Stephen did well going up and down the flanks, they worked really hard and Matty even scored the opener," he said.

"He beat one defender, flicked the ball past another and when a third was coming he let fly from about 25 yards, a screamer."

The Clarets went 2-0 up when Eves bundled the ball home after it had come back off the post but Pashley was again unhappy with the goal conceded that allowed Oldham back into the game right on half time.

"It was poor defending from a corner, the lad had a free header and instead of being two or three up at the break it was 2-1," he moaned.

Striker Damien Hindle restored the two goal advantage with a smart header at the near post and the victory ended up being comfortable.