SCOT GEMMILL leapt to the defence of Mark Wotte, the recently departed Scottish Football Association performance director, as his Scotland under-16 side prepare to defend their hard-earned Victory Shield title.

Triumph in the annual competition between the home nations at this level 12 months ago, back when Gemmill was assistant manager to Scott Booth, was our first for fully 15 years.

While controversy over the exit of Wotte, who stepped down earlier this month, provides the backdrop to Scotland's efforts to retain the shield, Gemmill for one pays tribute to the work done by the Dutchman in his four years in charge and feels the dividends will be seen in years to come. Next year's Victory Shield squad, for instance, will be the first to feature players who have been right through the SFA performance school system.

The two men also dovetailed as Scotland's under-17 side reached the European Championships in Malta, but Gemmill feels any credit the Dutchman derived from that achievement was entirely deserved.

"I'm going to be positive about Mark because he gave me my position and I worked very closely with him," said Gemmill. "If I'm being truthful he's been mentoring me for the last year and I've really learned a lot from him. I understand some people think differently but they don't know him as well as I do.

"I had an insight into how good his football brain is and that's all I was interested in," he added. "I was interested in learning football and, selfishly, in my own development. Am I surprised about the opinions of other people? No, that's football. But I think it was unfair to say Mark took the credit when we did well in Malta. I didn't feel like that. Mark was very influential but everything was discussed. It was a partnership so if he got credit then it was deserved."

Gemmill, more introspective and intellectual than your average Scottish club manager, has been a somewhat reluctant coach, but at the age of 43 he is making up for lost time as he forges a reputation in the game. The SFA are performing an audit of the functions of the performance director - and the entire performance department - before beginning the process of enlisting Wotte's replacement, but Gemmill for one envisages himself remaining in a youth coaching role, assuming, that is, that Wotte's potential successor still wants him.

He feels that the other strands of Wotte's worldview - the SFA's network of performance schools, the under-20 league and his insistence on increasing the amount of friendly matches Scotland play at youth team level - are bearing fruit.

"I spoke to Mark before he left and he was disappointed to leave because he was enjoying his job but at the same time he feels he put in place what he was asked to do," said Gemmill. "I will still pick up the phone to Mark from time to time.

"But you need to deal with who comes in next and their thoughts on football and me and the rest of the staff. You'd be silly to ignore the possibilities of what could happen but I'm confident I can talk football with anyone and I will hope to impress whoever becomes my boss.

"I'm taking a risk saying this because I've had no confirmation but I'm presuming everything will remain the same. The games the youth teams have played in the last few years have been against good teams, really competitive games.

"It's something I really believe in - playing best v best helps you. Those guys I had at under-17 level had played roughly 25 games and I think it showed."

Not only is there a new manager in place, none of the 18-man squad that he has picked for tomorrow's match against Northern Ireland played in last year's competition.

While the young Scots lost twice to the Netherlands recently, they showed a significant uplift in performance from their loss to the Republic of Ireland in March.

Jack Adamson of Hibs is likely to lead the line and it says it all for the lack of heroes in the Scottish game that the man he really wants to emulate is a Welshman. "Gareth Bale is definitely one of the players I look up to," Adamson said.

"Sometimes when I play left-mid I like to think I could see myself becoming a bit like him, assuming I can work on my body strength and stuff like that. I saw him at Tottenham when he was 17 making his debut and he wasn't anything like as strong as he is now. It just shows you what hard work does."