Boss Roy Keane has revealed that he’s a big fan of Bermudian winger Reggie Lambe. The Town manager was delighted with the 19-year-old’s performance in Tuesday’s 2-1 Carling Cup victory at Millwall.
Keane says that Lambe, who has won nine full international caps with Bermuda, scoring four goals, is a player he has a lot of time for: "I shouldn’t say this because he’ll get hammered, but I have a soft spot for Reggie. He’s had to be more patient than a lot of the other players. He’s had a bit of a taste of it but he’s not really trained that much with the first team and he’s had to bide his time.
"In the reserve game at Colchester last week he was one of only a couple of players to come out of it with a bit of credit. Reggie’s doing well and I think the other night was just the right game for him and he didn’t let us down.
"On top of the fact that he’s a talented boy, his workrate impressed everybody the other night,” Keane continued. "Let’s not kid ourselves, Reggie’s still got a lot to do, but he gave us a nice little headache the other night. He’s got a nice way about him, he’s the opposite to me, he’s very laid back, but I like that in people as well.”
Keane sees Lambe as the ideal deputy for Carlos Edwards: "Reggie’s a good replacement for Carlos. He’s like a mini-Carlos, shall we say — same type of running style, same type of player, same type of attitude. Reggie doing well was a big plus for us the other night.”
Lambe is one of 21 Town squad members currently out of contract and Keane says discussions have begun with a view to tying some of those players to the club: "Talks are going on with one or two of the senior players.
"These things don’t happen overnight and the first conversations might only have started last week. It doesn’t happen that quickly.
"We’re always looking at the contract situation. You mention some of the senior players, but a lot of the young boys from the youth team only signed one-year deals — Luke, Tom and Reggie, for example.
"But we don’t just give them new deals after one or two games, you’ve got to earn the right to play and you’ve got to earn the right to win a contract.”
Meanwhile, new loan signing Jake Livermore has been handed the number 14 shirt.