And one of the 19-year-olds is Nigel Hasselbaink, nephew of former Leeds, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Dutch international striker Jimmy Floyd.

The younger family member can operate in midfield or, as his uncle did, as striker and is on the books of giants PSV Eindhoven, though he had a spell out on loan last season with Go Ahead Eagles.

He’s been recommended by the same people who drew the club’s attention to midfield stalwart Buaben, who was a product of the Ajax youth system in Amsterdam. Also coming on last night was Johnbull Omoregie, another 19-year-old, who has a Nigerian passport, but was previously with Norwich City. He’s been training with United for a couple of weeks, while Hasselbaink has only just arrived.

Given their age, gaffer Peter Houston stressed that in looking at them he was thinking in terms of the future.

“They are both young, but they’ve been recommended and I decided to have a look at them,” said Houstie.

“I’ll use them at Livingston tonight and that will give me a longer look and I can take things from there. Nigel comes from the same people that unearthed Prince for us, so you can see why I’ve decided to bring him over.”

Edging closer to a permanent deal at Tannadice is Lithuanian centre-half Irmantas Zelmikas, who impressed at Stark’s Park on his third outing as a trialist.

A final decision on the 30-year-old, though, will not now be made until after he’s turned out in Saturday’s friendly against Hull City at the KC Stadium.

“No disrespect to Raith Rovers, but Saturday will give him the kind of stiff test I’m wanting to see,” explained Houstie.

“We will be up against a team that has just dropped out of the Premiership down south and who will have a lot of players wanting to impress their new manager.”

United will head down to England in confident mood after last night’s five-star display that banished the memories of Saturday’s disappointing draw with Glentoran.

“That was night and day from the weekend and I’m not talking about the goals we scored,” continued the manager.

“It was the effort and work rate that pleased me and, even by half-time, I told the players that was the real Dundee United.”

As well as the teenage trialists, tonight’s trip to Almondvale will see the likes of Andis Shala and Francisco Sandaza get run-outs.

Raith boss John McGlynn remained upbeat despite seeing his side crushed 5-0, preferring to look on the bright side.

“It hurts to lose 5-0 and we got a real lesson in finishing tonight,” he said.

“But I don’t think we played too badly and Grant (Murray) and Laurie (Ellis) won’t come up against that level of opposition every week.”

Dundee United’s Open Day goes ahead this Sunday. Doors open at noon and entry is via the George Fox Stand.

As well as the usual stalls and autogragh/photo opportunities with first-team squad, supporters will also be able to get photos taken with the Scottish Cup.

The lucky programme winner will get — if geographically possible — the Scottish Cup at his house to show off to family and friends.

In particular, the performance of Northern Ireland U/21 captain, Johnny Flynn, caught the eye and interest from outside Dens is likely to mount over the coming week.

However, SFL rules dictate trialists are ineligible for cup games, and with the all-important league season kicking off the following week, time is running out to tie up the boys, who’ll, hopefully, take Dundee back to the SPL.

“I thought the lads started well and kept going right through,” said Chis.

“You’ve got to remember the four guys don’t know each other and haven’t played together, so I was really pleased with their application over the whole game.

“You could see they were getting a bit more used to each other in the second half, but one of them only turned up at six o’clock to play at half-past-seven, so, all things considered, I was really pleased.

“Ryan McCann had a good 45 minutes, too. I’ve known him for a long time. We can only bring so many players in, though, and it’s all about whether we can keep that balance.

“They’ve all given me plenty to think about over the next few days.”

Meanwhile, Mikael Antoine-Curier was left out of the squad for last night’s game and didn’t take his place in the stand alongside other uninvolved squad members.

Speculation has been mounting over the big striker’s future after Dundee knocked back a bid from Hamilton Accies, believed to be around £15,000, last week.

No follow-up bid has been received, although Hamilton — including key administrative staff — are currently on a week-long training camp in Spain.

“Everything the keeper did against Distillery was nice and tidy,” said Saints team boss Derek McInnes.

A Liam Craig spot-kick won the game for the visitors and Derek felt there were positives he could take.

He added, however, “There is room for a lot of improvement and I’ll be looking for a better performance in Dungannon tomorrow night.”

Murray Davidson has recovered from a back problem and trained today as did Jody Morris who is on the way back from hernia surgery. They’ll likely get a run against Dungannon.

Saints play their first home match of the pre-season when they take on a Manchester United XI. on Saturday, then former manager Owen Coyle brings his Bolton squad to Perth on Monday.