Blues boss Mick McCarthy says the progress made by young full-backs Myles Kenlock and Josh Emmanuel is among the positives which can be taken from what’s overall been a disappointing season.
Kenlock, 20, has made 14 starts and two appearances during 2016/17, having made a further five starts last season, while 19-year-old Emmanuel has made 13 starts and three sub appearances, adding to six starts and one game from the bench in the previous campaign when he also made one start and one sub appearance for loan club Crawley.
"I think they’ve done well and I think Myles in particular over the last few games, especially after we lost Jonas [Knudsen to a shoulder injury], he’s been very good,” McCarthy said.
"The two games, Friday and Monday against Burton and Newcastle, he was excellent. I know he gave the penalty away at Burton, but that was a little bit [unfortunate]. I think he’s had two great games.”
McCarthy is pleased with the way Town supporters treat young players: "I don’t think our fans give our young players any grief or aggravation.
"If they do it’s come out of frustration at all of us and when the younger players make a mistake, they have a groan, but it’s [more about] the whole team and the way things have gone this year, not at our young players.
"Every club likes to have their own young players in and I think our fans especially like to see them play. They get grief because we’ve not been playing well as a team.
"I’d like to think they give them extra latitude, which we do because they’re inexperienced and they will make mistakes.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy says midfielder Luke Hyam, who has missed the whole campaign with first a knee injury and then more recently an ankle problem, will be fit and raring to go ahead of pre-season.
"They all get a pack with their regimes in to keep their fitness over the summer,” McCarthy said. "I think they’re remarkable now, they come back pretty much 90 per cent ready to play.
"And especially Luke. I think he was disappointed last year, I don’t think he won the bleep test, I think Diggers beat him. So I would imagine that he’ll come back and he’ll want to win it this year.
"He’s progressing nicely, he’s not going to be involved. At the end of the season he’ll be fit to do his regime for the summer and he’ll come back and he’ll be perfect for pre-season.”
One man who won’t be pack for pre-season at the end of June will be Jonathan Douglas, who has been released. "
McCarthy says the 35-year-old will be a good addition for another club over the summer
"I’ve watched him training this morning and anybody that would want him, he’s a fantastic example to all the young kids,” he added.
"He’s terrific, believe me. Low maintenance, trains every day, plays and gets through it. I wish I’d signed him earlier in my career. I tried to sign him before. He would have been a good signing at any time, but he’s been good for us.”