AHEAD of the Scottish Youth Cup final next month, many of Celtic's aspiring talents will have already allowed their young minds to wander to the showpiece occasion at Hampden.

For their counterparts at Dunfermline Athletic, however, there are more pressing matters to attend to.

Members of the young side operating under John Potter, the East End Park club's under-20s coach, have been fast-tracked up the ladder due to the axe falling on the majority of those in a more senior position and have been asked to help drag the club out of a Irn-Bru First Division relegation fight. However, as Saturday's crucial 1-0 victory over Cowdenbeath proved, the bright start to their first-team careers shows little sign of abating.

"I never thought I'd be in the same team as them, I'm old enough to be their dad," admitted Potter, who was a second-half substitute on Saturday. "They have been winning a lot of games this season. I know all the boys, they are the same kids I've been working with all season, so before the game I just had a word with them to give them some encouragement.

"I've worked with them every day and now they are in the first team; the manager has shown great faith in them. I know how they work, it's just a matter of making sure they are fired up."

The win, courtesy of a Stephen Husband penalty, enabled Dunfermline to leapfrog their Fife rivals and rise out of the relegation play-off spot, albeit due only to a vastly superior goal difference.

Despite fielding a team littered with players barely old enough to drive to training, Dunfermline still had enough about them to get the better of a Cowdenbeath side that looked out of their depth for most of the afternoon. Whether Potter and his colts can replicate that against champions Partick Thistle next weekend, however, is a different prospect altogether.

"We beat Morton when no-one gave us a chance, so we need to go to Thistle and show the same mental strength," said Potter. "It's in our hands if we want to stay up."