Neil Adams has no fears about throwing his young guns into Championship battle.

Josh Murphy led the way with a goalscoring brace in the midweek Capital One Cup win over Crawley Town that was notable for the inclusion of nine academy products in Adams' squad.

The City chief accepts Murphy is making a persuasive case for inclusion to feature more prominently with league points at stake.

'He is in the mix. I spoke to him on Thursday and I told him he was excellent,' said Adams. 'He has got every chance. He has done all he can do and when you get a chance in the side you have to grab it and he did in spades with two goals, one left foot, one right and he is pushing hard now. Had we lost the cup game I would probably have been criticised for playing such a young team but I had every confidence in them. I thought they could do the job and I still felt that team was strong enough to win the game and so it proved. 'Of course they will get the added benefit now. You take Kyle McFadden, he has had a senior game, I know he played a few minutes against Nice, but until you throw into a competitive fixture you can never be 100pc sure. It is how they react and I felt Kyle was excellent so the bonus was four or five of those lads experienced the occasion. We know if we need them we can call on them.'