Town manager Joe Royle was impressed with a number of his youngsters at Southend last night and was pleased to score four goals. The Blues' boss felt the pitch suited the home side who are a week further into pre-season training.

Royle praised a number of players: "There were plenty of bonuses. Darren Bent was electric, Marcus and Ian scored terrific goals, Pablo headed in a great goal. I thought Antonio Murray was excellent, as was Gerard Nash and Drissa.

"It was good to win and I thought we played some nice stuff as well."

The Town manager says that keeper Javier Sanchez Broto, a watcher at Roots Hall, will get a game whilst the squad is in Sweden. The Spaniard is yet to train and joined the Blues on trial on Tuesday.

Royle was also impressed with trialist Steve Towers who played at right-back. The 16-year-old Oadby Town player will be involved in the reserves squad which faces Framlingham Town at Badingham Road this evening (7.45pm).

Last week Town announced a squad for the game which included Towers and fellow trialists Newton Boyce and Alfie Kamara.

Boyce is a young midfielder who was with the Sunderland U17 side last term while Kamara, recently released by Arsenal, had a trial spell with the Blues towards the tail-end of 2002/03. The Sierra Leone-born England U15 international plays either in the centre of defence or midfield.

Squad: Lewis Price, Scott Peat, Erdem Artun, Ian Westlake, Scott Mitchell, Aidan Collins, Chris Hogg, Nabil Abidallah, Antonio Murray, Steve Towers, Sam Morrow, Dean Bowditch, Erkan Okay, Alfie Kamara, Newton Boyce, Craig Reid, Daniel Flack, Adem Atay.

Photo: Action Images

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