GARETH Ainsworth has backed his young guns to fire the Blues away from the relegation zone – starting tonight at Exeter City.

The Chairboys manager said his young lions have nothing to fear from the trip to St James’ Park after beating the league leaders Chesterfield.

Max Kretzschmar, 19, stepped up to slam home the winner from the spot on Saturday while Josh Scowen, 20, was named man-of-the-match.

Anthony Stewart, 21, put in a towering performance when he came on for the injured Gary Doherty and the front-pairing of Matt McClure and Anthony Jeffrey never gave The Spireites defenders time to breathe.

Ainsworth said: “The young lads are the future of this club.

“We have so many talented young players coming through which is fantastic for the future, but the present is also important and we need to get on a run now and start to pull away from the bottom of this league.

“It wasn’t just three points, it was a win against top of the league and should say to the players we are not far away. We have to believe now and kick on, and hopefully this will be the start of a good run.

“But we can’t get carried away, we’ve only just got on this run and we’ve got to stay on it and get away from the bottom.

“We need to keep our feet on the ground and get back-to-back wins. There’s no reason why we can’t get the three points at St James’ Park.”

Doherty is out for the foreseable future after undergoing surgery on Sunday.

The defender broke his arm and dislocated his elbow in a nasty fall after an aerial challenge with Chesterfield's Armand Gnanduillet on Saturday.