YEARS ago, an aspiring young player’s only route to firstteam football tended to come via the reserve team. Spend a few successful months in the ‘stiffs’, and you might get a chance to rub shoulders with the senior players on a match day.

A decade or so ago, initially thanks to the approach of Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, it became fashionable to treat the League Cup as a crucible for testing promising young footballers. A generation of players now making headlines in the Premier League gained their grounding in the cut-andthrust of domestic knockout competition.

Today, there is a third avenue. For the clubs knocking on the door of English football’s Champions League elite, the Europa League has become a glorified finishing school for emerging academy talent. Particularly in its early rounds, it offers muchneeded first-team exposure away from the intensely pressurised environment of the Premier League.

Tomorrow, when Newcastle United play Club Brugge in their fourth Europa League group game, Alan Pardew is expected to name Sammy Ameobi, Shane Ferguson and Gael Bigirimana in his starting line-up.

All three are aged 21 or under; all three are extremely highly rated within the Magpies’ coaching set-up. It might seem counter-productive to spend a year trying to qualify for something, only to then turn to the kids. But if the kids are as talented as Pardew and his coaches clearly believe they are, might nights such as tomorrow be crucial stepping stones to a bright and successful future?

“Every game is a massive game, but for the young players coming through like myself, the European games have been even more important this season because they’re generally the ones we’ve been playing,” said Ameobi, whose elder brother, Shola, was also playing European football in his first full season as a Newcastle player, albeit in the more rarefied environment of the Champions League.

“It’s been a fantastic experience so far, and hopefully we’ll get another chance to show what we can do in Brugge. It’s another big opportunity to show we deserve to be here, and at this stage in our careers, it’s important to grasp every opportunity that comes along.

“As young players, you can sometimes go months without getting anywhere near the first team, but because of all the matches we’re playing at the moment, that hasn’t been the case here. That’s fantastic, but brings a pressure to perform.”

The hope is that that pressure to perform means players such as Ameobi and Ferguson will not be overawed when they are eventually thrown into the heat of Premier League battle.

The pair were both promoted from the substitutes’ bench as Newcastle desperately attempted to repel a series of Liverpool attacks in the second half of Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Anfield, and their maturity and composure was surely down, in some part, to their exposure to regular European competition this season.

“Playing in Europe is where I want to be,” said Ferguson. “It is a dream come true and I’m just happy to get any kind of opportunity, but to represent Newcastle and be part of this club’s proud tradition in Europe is exactly what I want. I’m delighted to have had my chance and now it is just about pushing on.”

Both Ferguson and Ameobi caught the eye in the home game against Club Brugge, with the latter setting up Gabriel Obertan’s match winner with an impudent flick and dribble from the heart of midfield.

Tomorrow’s game will be the third Europa League match in succession in which Ameobi has featured, a run of appearances that has exposed him to a string of valuable experiences.

He freely admits he is out of his “comfort zone” when Newcastle play abroad, and whether it is the flight out of Newcastle Airport, the hostility of an overseas crowd or the tactical nuances of life on the continent, tackling European opposition in their own backyard is a challenge that is both unique and intensely educational.

“It’s especially valuable to be playing European matches away from home because you learn so much,”

explained Ameobi. “It’s different to even playing away in the Premier League and I think we, as young players, will benefit so much from the experience of travelling away to Europe to play teams in a foreign setting.

“It takes you out of your comfort zone. You travel to different places, and you also experience different styles of football as well.

That’s great for our experience as young players coming through.

“Shola did it at the start of his career and learned so much - I think we’re learning a lot from this as well.”