Northern Ireland U21 international striker Caolan Lavery gave his hopes of winning a professional contract a further boost by netting twice as the reserves beat Peterborough United 5-0 in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Playford Road this afternoon. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Jaime Peters and Ronan Murray were the other scorers.
Ãvar Ingimarsson was again included in the reserves line-up with the Icelander in with a shout of making his second first team appearance for the Blues at Middlesbrough on Saturday with the club waiting to hear the assessment of the knee ligament problem Ibrahima Sonko suffered during last night’s victory over Coventry.
Shane O'Connor, Joe Whight and Cody Cropper were amongst those also involved.
Lavery, 18, has been in a rich vein of form at the start of the season, netting for the U18s on Saturday and again for the reserves in last Tuesday’s 8-1 reserves victory over Gillingham.
The youngster from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada had his academy scholarship extended until October after suffering a knee injury in last November’s FA Youth Cup defeat to Peterborough and missing a large part of the last campaign.
Manager Paul Jewell said last Friday that he's been impressed with Lavery’s improved fitness and attitude and will be making a decision on the striker, who has previously been linked with Leicester and Spurs, in the weeks to come: "He was unlucky because he was injured last year. We gave him until October to prove his fitness and to see if he’s worth a pro contract.
"He’s done well and he’s one we have to make a decision on in the next week or two. Certainly, he’s got good desire.
"He’s come back a lot fitter and shown a good attitude, so we’ll be sitting down to discuss what we’re going to do with him.”
Today’s match was played behind closed doors but where both clubs agree games will be open to the general public with details announced a couple of days beforehand.