Town have confirmed that Shane O'Connor, Ronan Murray and Joe Whight will be in the second string squad which faces Haverhill Rovers at their New Croft ground in a friendly this evening (KO 7.30pm).

Also included in the travelling party are US U20 international keeper Cody Cropper and Northern Ireland U19 international midfielder Cormac Burke, who have both agreed one-year professional deals with the club.

The duo will be second-year scholars this season, despite being a year older than most of those in their final season at the academy, which therefore requires them to sign senior terms.

Northern Ireland U21 international striker Caolan Lavery, who has had his scholarship extended until October after missing three months of last season through injury but is yet to be offered a professional deal, and promising young defender Callum Bennett are also likely to be involved.

Recent Icelandic academy recruit Gunnar Thorsteinsson is in the squad and has been named in Iceland’s U18s for a four-nation tournament in Sweden later this month, in which Town’s Jack Simmons and Elliot Scotcher will also take part for Wales.

Photo: Action Images

legoman added 12:23 - Jul 13 Whight and oconnor. The new Harper and Lambert one day?
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thebeat added 12:34 - Jul 13 i feel really sorry for O'Connor, hes been outstanding when hes played in the 1st team.PJ's doin a great job but if theres one thing hes got wrong it seems he doesnt rate O'Connor.big shame as imo hes a great option all down the left hand side
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GTRKing added 12:50 - Jul 13 He will play him just not in holland. So he slowly introducing him into the 1st team
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Cookycrew added 12:53 - Jul 13 Shane O' Connor has been one of those very few players that was consistently excellent under Mr.Keane. He has fantastic touch, has speed, pushes forward very well at any sensible opportunity and has created a lot of openings down the left side for our previously suspect forward line. Why does PJ not consistently play him and see for himself? He has only given him 10 minutes at the away Arsenal game....er and that's it? I would like an explanation please why he is not even on the Holland trip, let alone not starting each game?

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blueherts added 13:04 - Jul 13 Lavery - good good prospect - we have some good young uns at the club
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robdaful added 13:51 - Jul 13 Should be good experince for the young ones. Feel sorry for O'connor. I didn't even Conor Hourine go to the Netherlands?
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sonian_blue added 13:53 - Jul 13 In agreement with a couple of posts here and seemingly with pretty much all fellow fans I have spoken to, O'connor seems to be the forgotten man. We all rate him highly and cannot understand why he is not given a run. Clearly he is not in PJ's plans as he hasnt travelled with the squad. Quite baffling actually.
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depressed added 16:27 - Jul 13 Yeh strange one this ! On footballing ability alone he would certainly figure in most of our plans and would not have been overlooked for the tour of Holland. Obviously, Jewell thinks differently. Maybe something has gone on that we are all not aware of. Good Luck for tonight anyway!
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jas0999 added 18:56 - Jul 13 I feel very sorry for O'Conner. I rate him, but clearly PJ doesn't and he's the only one that counts!!
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