Blues boss Paul Hurst was pleased to see midfielder Andre Dozzell back in action after almost a year out injured at Braintree on Saturday and felt the 19-year-old showed a desire to get on the ball which wasn’t matched by all of his team-mates.
The England U19 international tore a cruciate knee ligament in the 1-0 opening day win against Birmingham last August and missed the rest of the season.
The former Copleston High School pupil played 45 minutes of last week’s 1-0 behind-closed-doors friendly victory over Kilmarnock in Spain and was introduced as a 65th minute sub during Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Vanarama National League side at Cressing Road.
"I think straight away with Andre, he gave the ball away a few times but other times he passed it well,” Hurst reflected on the academy product’s performance.
"You can just tell he’s a good footballer and he wants the ball, which is something I sometimes question.
"As footballers, if you ask everybody they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I want the ball, I want the ball’. Well, Doz actually goes and gets the ball.
"Some of the others, did they today as much as they could have done? I’d question that. I’m pleased to get him out there.”
After almost a year out, Hurst says Dozzell won’t be going into the new season quite as ready as he would have been last summer.
"He’s going to have a battle with himself as much as anything that hopefully myself and the rest of the staff will help him with, in terms of him expecting to be the Andre Dozzell who started the first game of last season,” Hurst explained.
"It’s going to take time but it’s still great [he’s back] and he’s working extremely hard. I’ve been really impressed with his attitude.
"There have been times we’ve maybe said to just ease back a little and he’s wanted to carry on, despite being at the back of the running.
"Not in all ways, but when it maybe gets to an extra set of runs, we’ve all probably been in that position at some point in our lives or in some situation when you’re not good at something or you are at the back of the pack. It’s easy to get the white flag out, but he hasn’t done that and that’s really pleasing and positive for me moving forwards.”
Meanwhile, Hurst appears close to making his third Blues signing with Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony revealing that winger Gwion Edwards, for whom Town have agreed a fee of £700,000, having said his goodbyes at the weekend.
All good, nice moment on Saturday at St Neots as Gwion sought me out for a hug, a thank you for helping his career and a goodbye. Great guy & hope he rips up the championship :). Class of him to do this. https://t.co/PVsge69lZp– Darragh MacAnthony (@DMAC102) July 15, 2018
The 25-year-old former Wales U21 international’s representatives are understood to have been talking personal terms with the Blues over the weekend and the move could be confirmed as soon as today.
Another Town target, Blackpool central defender Curtis Tilt, was linked with Scottish Premiership Rangers over the weekend. The Blues are understood to have made a £550,000 offer for the ex-Wrexham man.
Speaking about the Blues’ interest in the 26-year-old, who QPR, Reading and Portsmouth are also believed to be eyeing, on Saturday, manager Hurst said: "I want a centre-back. I don’t know whether Curtis will be the one or not.
"And also I think what we have to appreciate is whether clubs want to sell, the prices they’re going to cost.
"That all has to come into the equation because we can all be a manager standing there saying we want this player or that player. But those players [Edwards and Tilt] are good players, they’re probably the type of calibre I’m looking for.”
Elsewhere, Town U23s coach Gerard Nash has passed the UEFA Pro Licence course with the Football Association of Ireland.