YOUNG stars of the future have come and gone at Wilderspool.

To be honest it happens at most clubs but we tend to remember the Warrington ones more so. Don't forget, Bobbie Goulding left Wigan and Paul Newlove left Bradford.

Paul Sculthorpe, who will be facing the Wolves for Saints on Sunday, is the latest to have come through Warrington's ranks and gone on to another club.

Others that ring a bell over the past decade or so are Iestyn Harris who went to Leeds, Neil Harmon, who went to Leeds, Steve Molloy, who went to Leeds, Martin Crompton, who went to Wigan and Billy McGinty, who went to Wigan.

As supporters we always feel aggrieved that players who we have come to admire and idolise are allowed to leave the club.

I think it is inevitable that at a club like Warrington, with no multi-millionaire backer, that some of the talented crop of youngsters will be sold and some will be kept. It helps to balance the books.

But because Warrington always give their young players a chance to prove themselves in the first team, the production line keeps on running.

And I can confirm that there are some more top kids on their way. The England Schoolboys 1998 squad has been announced this week and five of the 22 squad members are already on the Wolves' books. This was the same route to stardom taken by Sculthorpe, Harris and Co.

If you went to watch Warrington's under 16s signings play against Carcasonne recently at Wilderspool then you will have seen some of them in action.

Sean Penkeyvick, a hooker, has been snapped up from Leigh East - the same outfit where Warrington recruited Paul and Craig Wingfield from.

David Hughes, a prop, and Andrew Gornik, a threequarter, have been picked up from Orrell St. James - the club where Mark Hilton, Lee Penny and Warren Stevens joined the Wolves from. The other two players on Warrington's register in the England squad are Andrew Barr, a centre from Lunts Heath Lions in Widnes and back rower John Hill, from Ince St. Williams in Wigan.

I just hiope Warrington can keep hold of some of these!

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.