George Cairns watched with pride as Michael Devlin earned his first two caps for Scotland last week, and hailed it as progress for Hamilton Accies’ Academy.
Devlin might play for Aberdeen these days, but Cairns is delighted to see lads move on and better themselves.
It’s believed that Devlin’s international call-up also earned Accies around £25,000, which is a welcome boost.
Cairns doesn’t care about money though – rather that Lewis Smith is with Scotland under-21s and Jamie Hamilton is with the 19s.
Former players Lewis Ferguson and Eamonn Brophy have also been involved, and that spells good news for the club.
George said: “I spoke to Michael; it's a great achievement for him and for our Academy as well, and it's great to see one of our kids going on and doing well.
"Not only Michael, but Lewis Ferguson was with the under-21s, Lewis Smith, who is still with us, was with the under-21s as well, and Jamie Hamilton played for the under-19s. He's also playing for under-18s and is playing a year up, so he did well.
"It's good for the kids and, for the likes of Michael, it's good for the family. It's a boost for the players because it obviously shows that they're doing well at their clubs.
"It’s great to see our kids involved at international level, and long may that continue.
“Our job at the academy is to get a pathway for our kids to the first-team, that’s the most important part, and if we can get players capped as well then that’s great.”
