Town boss Mick McCarthy says new signing Jack Doherty was far from overawed when he trained with the Blues squad at Carton House in Kildare earlier this month. In fact, he says the 18-year-old stood out.

Doherty has agreed a two-year contract at Town with the formalities relating to his switch from Waterford United set to be completed in the next day or so.

McCarthy says he was impressed by the Clonmel-born midfielder during his trial: “There’s real potential in him. He’s about the size of Tabby, he needs to put a bit of weight on, but he’s a nice left-footed player.

“He came and trained with us for two days in Ireland and he wasn’t embarrassed by being with us, in fact he kind of stood out, which was good. It’s a nice little punt with him really and I think he’s got a real chance.”

McCarthy, whose family come from Waterford, says he hopes Doherty follows in the footsteps of Daryl Murphy, who the Blues boss signed from the Airtricity Division One side back in 2005 when he was in charge at Sunderland.

“My Dad was from Waterford, but I’m not trying to keep my old fella’s club going or anything like that because he was a hurling player,” he said.

“Murph came from there and he’s had a really good career. If Jack gets anywhere near as good as Murph’s done then we’ll be delighted.”

McCarthy says he views Doherty not just as a ‘chalk on his boots’ wideman: “I think he can do that, but I think he’s got more than that.

“Wingers, lots of them, come and play on the inside. I think he’s just got a nice bit of awareness about him as well. He can do that, I’m looking forward to seeing him with us.”

Meanwhile, the Blues boss says skipper Carlos Edwards is currently having some downtime after Trinidad and Tobago’s exit from the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the US: “I think he’s chilling. I spoke to him on Monday and he was in Trinidad.

“We’d love to see him before the weekend. If not, he’s fit, he’s played games and we’ll have to manage him as well because he’s done a lot of work, Carlos.”

Photo: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

sucrePB1 added 14:57 - Jul 24 http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=ron+from+harry+potter&um=1&safe=active&hl=en&bi http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/harry-potter/images/34194613/title&docid=OGTUrsvoFDE http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/34100000/Ron-harry-potter-34194613-1500-1
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clint_eastwood added 14:58 - Jul 24 Damien Duff??!! Wrong picture, Phil!!
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brassy added 14:59 - Jul 24 welcome to portman road young man.COYB.
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AbujaBlue added 15:00 - Jul 24 Great stuff, welcome to the club! Will he be eligble to play in The U18 game vs Southwold?
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Ipswich121 added 15:09 - Jul 24 Good to see we have a promising batch of young players coming through in the next few seasons and our team looks impressive with a low wage cap (when Chopra goes) building for the future not short term signings the future is bright!
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Ole_Pablo_Ole added 15:11 - Jul 24 Worth a punt like Mick says. I'm guessing we will see more of him next season rather than this one. Maybe he will head out on loan to a lower league side in January.
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ThatMuhrenCross added 15:18 - Jul 24 Certainly adds another dimension by the sounds of it. Our wide midfield options suddenly look very good: Tabb, Edwards, Anderson, Taylor (depending on how Mick utilises him), Wordsworth (occasionally), Carson, and now Doherty. He'll have to fight for his place, but I'm sure he'll get his chance.
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essextractorboy93 added 15:20 - Jul 24 Welcome to the club! Exciting to have lots of young players with loads of potential.
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hampstead_blue added 15:22 - Jul 24 He's got ginger hair, that's good enough for me.
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Jimmy86 added 15:38 - Jul 24 Welcome to the club Jack and lets hope your first season in a town 1 proves to be a hugely succesfull one COYB!!!! 9 players signed which provides competition
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gazzmac4 added 15:48 - Jul 24 Excellent stuff. I cant say that i have been unhappy with any of our signings this summer so far! That could be a first! Big season ahead! COYB's!
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Michael11 added 15:58 - Jul 24 I agree that this looks to be a player to let develop for a year then see where he's at. A loan move would probably be good for him. If he's ready to go now though then great, look forward to seeing a young fresh Ipswich Town team. It's certainly something we've lacked this last 4 or 5 years.
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SE1blue added 16:06 - Jul 24 So that's what happened to Gonch from Grange Hill. If we're going for terrible lookalikes based on ginger hair... Good luck fella!
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JewellintheTown added 16:10 - Jul 24 Trying not to get distracted but cant help noticing the pitch is looking good in the photo. Welcome aboard young Jack, BTW.
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JewellintheTown added 16:16 - Jul 24 Still surprises me people comment on people who have ginger hair. Wouldn't be commented on skin colour, religion or race nowadays, what's with the hair colour comments, what's it matter? Change "ginger hair" to a colour of skin and there would be uproar. BTW, mines blonde so not sensitive on the subject either.
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Jimmys_Law added 16:36 - Jul 24 Reading the article on the official ITFC website, it says 'Doherty was an academy player with Town but wasn't offered a scholarship' - haven't hear about this before, didn't know he'd been at the club previously.
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squonk added 17:24 - Jul 24 From one Tipperary man to another Tipperary man "go n-eiri an t-agh leat" Welcome to Ipswich Jack and best of luck in the season ahead. I have a feeling we are in for one hell of an exciting season COYB
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Scuzzer added 17:53 - Jul 24 The pitch doesn't go up to the stand? Cut backs?
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tim added 17:54 - Jul 24 Blaze one Carlos.
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jas0999 added 17:55 - Jul 24 I wish him well.
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tim added 17:56 - Jul 24 Forgot to mention: that pitch! It looks like a computer generated rendition of a perfect football pitch. Very proud of our gardeners.
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Jimmys_Law added 18:00 - Jul 24 @Scuzzer. The pitch never goes right up to the stands. If it did most of it would probably die due to the number of people that walk/warm up along it.
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BrandonsBlues added 18:14 - Jul 24 Reminds me of someone, but not Damien Duff, someone closer to TWTD
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Wickets added 18:15 - Jul 24 Luv a fiery ginger, well dun Mick.
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Scuzzer added 18:23 - Jul 24 Pitch looks further in than usual. Perhaps forward planning to stop the drips from the stand from freezing that side of the pitch like it did last season when it got called off half way through?
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