The Vale recently started up their own under-19 side, to add to the under-21 outfit which has been up and running for the past few years.

Ross Willis and James McDonald have already been promoted to the first team for the upcoming season, but McDonald will miss a chunk of the campaign having sustained a broken leg in the last game of the season.

And, Hamill insisted the youth section may prove to be key for years to come, he said: “This time of the year is always a bit frustrating when you are trying to get players in.

“We’ve managed to sign Kevin Stanley who is an experienced campaigner, Grant Howard and Kevin Connell who is a keeper but we are also looking to the youth system., “We need to push players through, we have managed to bring at least a couple through for the last couple of seasons.

“If we can do that from a young age, where the players can form an affinity with the club and maybe stay on for longer then that is brilliant, there is not a lot of money kicking about to attract players so we need to snap them up and put them into the youth teams.” But the Vale boss highlighted how difficult it can be to attract players to Millburn Park.

He added: “It can be very hard to get players to join the club at times.

“Just up the road you have the likes of Clydebank and Yoker who are higher up the leagues and a much bigger pull, so that is when you notice it.” Meanwhile, Hamill is battling to keep last season’s top goalscorer Scott Arthur at the club. The striker is keen to join Central District First side Renfrew, but having already signed on at the Vale for next season, Hamill stressed Arthur is going nowhere.

He told SportScene: “Scott’s a Vale player and that’s the way it is going to stay.

“He is a good lad but he has been tapped up by Renfrew and I don’t like the way they have gone about it in all honesty.

“I guess at the end of the day he has to make a decision about what he is going to do, he can choose to play for the Vale.

“I don’t want anything for him, I don’t want money, I just want him to play for the Vale.”