Town’s U17s finished seventh at the Voskescup tournament which was hosted by Belgian club SC Lokeren this weekend. Midfielder Byron Lawrence, who made his senior debut on the final day of the 2011/12 campaign, top scored for the Blues with four goals.

After ending Saturday joint-second in their group having been unbeaten after one win and two draws, the young Blues completed their group games with a 1-1 draw with AA Gent this morning, Lawrence scoring from the penalty spot.

They needed to beat eventual winners K Sint Truidense to reach the final but lost 2-1 - Lawrence again netting - and ended up fourth in their group of five.

Goals from Lawrence, Sam Ford and Ed Ellis saw the Blues to a 3-1 play-off victory over Sporting de Charleroi to take seventh place overall.

Academy coach Jason Dozzell, who travelled with the squad, told TWTD that the young Blues would have been in with a decent shout of winning the competition had they won their last group match: “We’d have been in the final if we’d have won our final group game. It was all we needed to do.

“We were 1-0 up after about 30 seconds and I thought ‘here we go’, but we got beaten 2-1 in the end. We had chances, it was one of those tournaments where if we’d taken our chances we would have won.

“Sint Truidense beat us to go into the final and they went on and won it quite comfortably 4-0 [against Beerschot AC].”

Overall, he felt the young Blues could be proud of the way they performed: “They did very well, we were the youngest side there, we had 15-year-olds and it was an under-17 tournament. We just lacked a little cutting edge up front, but they come out of it with a lot of credit.”

Meanwhile, academy schoolboy Cemal Ramadan was in the Irish U16 side which beat Germany 1-0 at a UEFA development tournament in Dublin earlier today.

Shane McLoughlin, like Ramadan a striker who is set to join the academy as a full-time scholar this summer, is also in the squad. Ireland face Romania tomorrow and Belgium on Wednesday.

U17s: Jacob Marsden, Sam McDermid, Josh Emmanuel, Joe Robinson, George Fowler, Travis Cole, Matthew Clarke, Chris Smith, Ed Ellis, Jack Willbye, Kundai Benyu, Josh Fagbohan, George Clarke Andre Dozzell, Byron Lawrence, Ted Bishop, Jonathan Smith, Sam Ford.

Photo: Action Images

francisb123 added 19:48 - May 12 I wouldn't have expected us to beat a great side such as K Sint Truidense
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Mr_Fantasmo added 19:54 - May 12 The nickname of K Sint Truidense is unfortunately the canaries
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ScottCandage added 19:55 - May 12 2 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss, can't be bad. Good experience for the lads.
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meekreech added 20:22 - May 12 Francisb123 Go troll on your budgie site ! These boys are our future and they are learning with the best coaches !
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ellerblue added 21:17 - May 12 Went to see the Sunday games on the way back from dusselldorf having watched fortuna with a great group of town supporters the u17 played very well against what IMO were bigger and more physical opponents what impressed me is the way they are being groomed to be ambassadors of the club in the fact that every single one of them and all the coaching team made a point of coming over to us and thanking us for the support our club future is in good hands.

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footyblue added 02:15 - May 13 @castlehillblue thanks for that and is really good to know we are progressing in the right direction especially with the youth set up
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cooper4england added 12:10 - May 13 6 games over a weekend. Oh the joy of being young. I would struggle with one game in a week! Well played lads. Nice to hear about the crowd appreciation.
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