Newcastle United academy boss Richard Money is convinced a number of the club's youngsters are capable of progressing to the first team.
Money told the Evening Chronicle: "We challenge one or two of them beforehand, and say 'You've been on the bench - now show why you've been on the bench'.
"We've been very young all season so far in this reserve league.
"There's no doubt that (Ryan) Donaldson, (Mark) Doninger, (Nile) Ranger and (Ben) Tozer are showing that little bit of extra quality when they jump back in the reserves after their experiences with the first team.
"Apart from keeper Tim Krul, every single one of them could still play on a Saturday morning in the Academy, and I think we forget that sometimes.
"As the manager of Walsall I saw a lot of reserve games, and when I looked at Blackburn's team last week some of their players had been around reserve-team football for a long time.
"Even though they were a young team, they're probably two or three years older than us, and that seems to be the norm."