IF you can't win anything with kids, conventional wisdom would suggest you certainly shouldn't be throwing them into crucial relegation dogfights. Thankfully, though, there are managers out there like Gary Locke who are prepared to disregard such expert advice.

Adam Frizzell, a 17-year-old attacking midfielder from Greenock, has started Kilmarnock's last five matches, helping his side to win three and draw one, results which have stretched their advantage over basement dwellers Dundee United to 14 points ahead of today's archetypal six-pointer between the teams at Tannadice. And it isn't just him: David Syme, all of 18, has been a regular in defence, while 19-year-old Greg Kiltie has been on the scene so long you would be forgiven for thinking he is a grizzled veteran by now. Another couple of teenagers wait on the bench like sixth years in the common room.

In the week where the SFA wheeled out a US-style loan draft system to aid our young players' chances of game time, Frizzell makes as pertinent a case study as any. The only problem is, that depending on which way you look at it, he could be used as evidence both of the chaotic nature of the current system or the fact that it isn't broken and consequently doesn't need fixing.

The long and short of it is this. Having attended First Touch Football Coaching in Inverclyde since the age of four, it wasn't long before Club Academy Scotland or so-called 'Pro Youth' took an interest. Frizzell, from a Rangers-supporting family, signed for the Ibrox club in preference to Celtic at the age of 10 and spent three happy years dreaming of playing for the Ibrox first team, alongside the likes of Ross and Robbie McCrorie.

It all ended with a bump, though, in time-honoured Scottish fashion. It wasn't lack of talent that was the problem, it was lack of inches. Even now, a month off his 18th birthday, his height is officially listed at 5ft 8in. But that is fully an inch taller than one of his heroes Lionel Messi and it didn't seem to stop him.

"The height was a big thing," Frizzell told Herald Sport. "That was one of the reasons. They wanted to play me a year down but that wasn't for me really. My mum and dad both agreed, they thought I would maybe go backwards a wee bit if I did that.

"So they just decided to take me out, and by the end it was kind of mutual I guess," he added. "Then my mum phoned up Killie and asked them if I could get the trial. I am not even sure how she managed to get the number but she found the contact and gave them a phone. I went on holiday, came back, then went to St Mirren for a trial but their team was full. Just when I thought I am not going to get in anywhere I managed to go to Killie at the last minute."

If the move to Ayrshire has been the making of him, it also lends his career development an accidental quality not uncommon in Scottish football these days. Frizzell admits the debt he owes to his parents Norrie and Irene for lifting and loading him most days, while his older brother Alan briefly played first team football for Morton and there is a special mention for Andy Black, his youth coach at Killie.

"I thought it was the be all and end all when I was at Rangers," Frizzell recalls. "I loved it but when I came out of there my confidence was just absolutely shattered. Killie has been absolutely brilliant for me. I just felt there wasn't as much pressure on me there and felt it suited me a lot better.

"I've been lucky," added Frizzell, a former Scotland Under-17 international who may soon be on the radar for the country's Under-19 side. "It just depends on the individual case really, some boys have been at the one club since they were eight and they go right up to the first team. Going to what you would say is a smaller club has fallen perfectly for me really, but it varies from player to player. Parents play a massive role I would say. I used to play with boys who stayed up the East End of Greenock who were absolutely cracking players but they couldn't make it because their mums and dads couldn't take them places."

Having featured for the Kilmarnock first team from the bench in mid-October, it was a late Christmas present when Frizzell turned up at New Douglas Park in Hamilton on Boxing Day to be informed he was making his first start. Hearts are still reaping the benefits from Locke's willingness to expose kids to the rigours of relegation football, while experienced players at Rugby Park like Kris Boyd and Lee McCulloch have also helped him acclimatise. Frizzell accepts more physical work is required to deal with the step up from Under-20s to first team.

Perhaps the presence of veterans like that in the dressing room will also help when it comes to Ibrox in a fortnight's time in the Scottish Cup fifth round, if he is fortunate enough to be picked. "When the cup draw came out, I couldn't believe we got them!" he said. "I was joking with my dad, saying 'I bet we get Rangers at Ibrox' and we did. It will be a full house and it would be just fantastic to be involved in that. The fact Kris Boyd, Steven Smith, and Lee McCulloch are all going back will help, they can take the limelight a little bit.

"I was very rarely at Ibrox when I was at Rangers," he added. "You would maybe go at the beginning of the season, and get a wee game here and there, but apart from that I didn't get to play on it."

As inconsistent as Kilmarnock have been this season, they have drawn with Celtic twice, and could well further damage in Glasgow if they "turn up on the day". First, though, is a meeting with Dundee United which promises to be no place for the faint-hearted. "Dundee United need to find inspiration from somewhere so they will come flying out the traps," said Frizzell, "but we will be the same, it should be a cracking game. A lot of people say you should only play young boys when the team is flying high and winning, but if the gaffer asks me to play I will treat it the same as every other game."