ALAN Burrows, Motherwell's chief operating officer, praised the SFA last night for listening to some of his club's concerns about Project Brave, but insisted further reassurance was required from the governing body to ensure them that all the elite academies admitted to their new development scheme are able to access the same fixtures programme.

The Lanarkshire side, one of a number of West of Scotland clubs meeting with SFA chief executive Stewart Regan and performance director Malky Mackay at Hampden yesterday, have been arch critics of the scheme, which envisages the population of the nation's 29 youth academies being cut by around half. Intrigue surrounds the final number of academies fulfilling the requisite criteria of full-time staff, facilities and generating enough Measurable Performance Outcomes (MPOs) to be granted 'performance academy' status, even though the Project Brave strategy group recommended that Scotland was able to sustain no more than 16 academies and the most efficient way was to play in two tiers of eight to enshrine the principle of 'best v best'.

While the criteria for measuring these MPOs has recently been corrected, to lessen the weight placed on international caps ahead of first-team appearances, Motherwell - currently SFA Youth Cup holders and currently sitting second in the Development League - feel it would make a mockery of things if their young players were not deemed worthy to take on the academies of Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and Aberdeen. After abortive progress from the SFA in implementing their performance strategy over the past six years, the success or failure of the scheme may be tied closely to the fortunes of Regan himself.

"My initial thoughts are that I have left the room far more positive about Project Brave than I have been," said Burrows. "I think the SFA have listened. There are still one or two things that we want to sort out but a lot of our major concerns have been addressed.

"I still want some reassurance, though, that if Motherwell are in the elite programme that we will still get a chance to play against Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Aberdeen and all those clubs," he added. "Because that is the clubs our players want to be playing against. That is the model I want to sell to our parents. Stewart can't answer that because he says he doesn't know which teams will bid.

"I want to praise Les Gray at Hamilton, who has been extremely positive for speaking up for the Motherwells, Hamiltons, and Thistles, clubs who don't have the wallet, but have the desire and philosophy of producing young players. It shouldn't be best v best because you can put them on a spreadsheet. It has to actually be about going out on a Saturday and Sunday and playing games. I don't want us to be locked out because we have not got a fancy dan facility or a roofed astroturf pitch. This has to be right for everybody's sake, for Scottish football's sake, we have to be better at what we are doing."