Town boss Paul Jewell says 15-year-old academy schoolboy Byron Lawrence will benefit from being in the Blues squad for Tuesday’s Carling Cup defeat to Northampton even if he didn’t get the chance to make his senior debut. The midfielder would have become the club’s youngest-ever player at 15 years and 150 days had he taken to the field.
Jewell would have given Lawrence, who is from the village of Melbourn near Royston in Hertfordshire and attends Melbourn Village College, his debut against the Cobblers if the game had gone nearer to plan: "I had this notion that we might be able to get him on if we got the right situation. He’s going to be a good player.
"He’s only a kid and he reminds me of… well, I’ll be careful of saying who he reminds me of because it will be all over the place!
"He’s a small guy but he’s got great balance, strength and a good football brain and hopefully he’ll be a player for us in the future.”
The Town academy watched left-footed Lawrence for some time while he was with Histon’s youth set-up before he joined the Blues on schoolboy forms on April 10th last year.
The midfielder broke into the U18s during 2010/11 and he recently captained the U15s at the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland where they reached the semi-finals. England U16 caps at the Victory Shield later this season could well be on the cards.
The Blues manager says fans probably won’t get to see too much more of the youngster, who can also play as a second striker, this season: "I wouldn’t think so. It’s just that he’s been training with us. He did a couple of things in training on Monday that caught my eye and I thought why not stick him on the bench.
"Whatever happened on Tuesday, it will be a good experience for him. Even though we lost the game him being involved in the first team set-up will be a great experience for him and will edge him on to want to be part of it.
"He’s going to be a good player but we don’t want to put too much on his shoulders too soon. I was looking to give him some experience.”
Due to his age, Jewell says he had to get written permission from his dad to include him in the squad and joked that his tender years could have caused him another issue: "I had a problem if it went to extra-time because I didn’t think he could stay up that late!”