WHO'S kidding who? That's the question Celtic fans are pondering in a week when they asked Bhoys to do the job of men at Pittodrie - and paid the price.
As much as time can be a healer, it can also be a killer.
Celtic, dependent on so many callow youths to sustain their flickering title hopes, are fast approaching the age of reason.
Alan Hansen once got it spectacularly wrong when he predicted you win nothing with kids. But this is Celtic with Josh Thompson, Paul Caddis, Thomas Rogne and Darren O'Dea, not Manchester United with David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers.
Unlike Sir Alex Ferguson, Mowbray is not putting his youngsters into the firing line through choice, but through necessity.
The hope is they can defy their lack of experience and at least hang on to Rangers' coattails until such times as the full complement of players are once again available.
The fear is the kids can be scarred by the experience of being part of the side which continues to ship goals and drop points, allowing Walter Smith's team to disappear over the horizon.
Mowbray's main task is to mentor them on a match-by-match basis, using the knowledge he gleaned in a long career which exposed him to as many highs as lows.
brochure printingHowever, he is also driven to protect their long-term future in the game, and will continue to act as a buffer between them and brickbats which can fly when the results are not what fans demand.
Mowbray was as unhappy, frustrated and disappointed in equal measure as anyone who watched Saturday's capitulation at Pittodrie.
But he is not about to stick the boot in, recognising the need for an arm round the shoulder rather than a boot up the backside.
Reflecting on the ease with which Aberdeen knocked four past his side, Mowbray said: "It's a youthfulness thing. It's inexperience, and the bottom line is you get experience by playing games.
"Hopefully, they have to learn from this experience.
"You have got to take everything from a negative result. You have got to try and gain from it.
"Some of the young players who played at the back against Aberdeen will see it as an experience and one they don't want to repeat."
Mowbray is speaking from experience, and can empathise with his young charges.
He kicked off his playing career paper bag printing with Middlesbrough aged 19 when tasked with marking Newcastle hero Kevin Keegan in a St James' Park derby.
Within three years he had shown enough maturity to be handed the captaincy.
The Teesside club were in danger of relegation, and, at one point even closure. But it all served merely to make Mowbray stronger, and he can see the benefits of operating in adversity.
"Sometimes you get thrown in, whether it's through injury or circumstance or financial situations at clubs," he said, as he compared his introduction to the heat of battle with that of the youngsters he is currently blooding.
"I played at a pretty young age and made lots and lots of mistakes along the way.
"I was put in the team, taken out of it, put back into it, and so it went on.
"
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