Kurtis Byrne was the talk of the football nation last season when he ended the Under-19 campaign in superb fashion, scoring the key goals that clinched a league and cup double for the Hibernian youngsters. On Saturday the striker was watching his former team-mates as they took on Celtic in the Under-19 league - and was 24 hours later back in action for the Hibernian first team, albeit as a very late substitute against Hamilton, and too late to have any hope of making much difference to the outcome.

It has however been a satisfactory start to his first team career for Kurtis, who admits that there is also a little frustration at being on the bench - but also understanding of just why he is there: "It has been a little frustrating but at the same time I can see that we have a lot of quality players in my position, so I know I just need to be patient and wait for my chance to come along. It really is just a case of keeping my head down and working hard in training - and play as best I can in the bounce games that are organised. The fact that there is no reserve league this season does make it a little bit more difficult because there is not so much competitive football available when you are on the fringes of the first team squad. All the same I know that I need to make sure I'm ready when the opportunity comes along.

"While there are no reserve games as such we have been busy, we played St Mirren at their stadium last week and they put a good team out, we drew 2-2 in that one with a lot of young boys in the side so that was a good run-out for us."  Byrne shared the frustration of his team-mates on Sunday at New Douglas Park, a day when nothing went right for the Easter Road side. The striker told Hibernian TV: "The Hamilton game was a setback for us, I'd like to have been involved in that game a bit earlier. If Derek had scored with the penalty chance then we certainly would have had a chance of a draw from the game, but that's football. I got on but too late to really be able to do anything, but I like to be involved so getting on the pitch at any time will do. The entire day was just a bad one for all of us, we just did not perform well at all, we were second to every ball and nothing was going right for us."

Byrne is pleased to note that the current crop of Under-19 players have started the new season well, undefeated so far and sharing top spot in the league with Celtic: "I've been keeping an eye on the Under-19 side this season - I watched them the other day against Celtic and felt they were a bit unlucky not to win the game. They did actually score but the referee did not see that the ball was over the line, but the side is looking good and if they keep things together then I can see them doing well again in the league and cup. Fergus Bell has been scoring a lot of goals and doing well for the team, they'll all though not go wrong with Alistair Stevenson and James McDonaugh. They are great coaches who I have to say turned my career around when I came here from Norwich.

"I always knew the step up from Under-19 football to the first team was going to be a difficult one. The pace is a lot quicker of course and there is a lot more pressure on you, but I feel I've dealt with that quite well. The other boys who stepped up have been doing really well - of course David Wotherspoon has been fantastic, all in all though I think we are doing fine."

Kurtis is working hard this week preparing for the double-header against St Johnstone - and knowing that on Saturday three points are vital for a side that really needs to bounce back from successive league defeats: "We need to get things back on track against St Johnstone this week - quite simply we need to get the three points and to do that we know we have to work hard as a team, and on the day we need to score the goals that will get us those points. We have them in the cup as well - but we'll need to concentrate on the league match first and getting those points, we'll then look to the cup tie."

The full interview with Kurtis is available now on Hibernian TV.