Town boss Mick McCarthy is considering giving striker Ben Folami his first Championship start at Brentford on Saturday or in one of the Blues’ other remaining games and he says defender Barry Cotter, who signed from Limerick in January, could also be involved with the first team before the end of the campaign.

The 18-year-old Australian frontman impressed as a half-time sub in Monday’s 2-2 draw with Millwall with his only previous senior appearance having come in the Carabao Cup tie at Crystal Palace in August.

“I’m considering it but I’ll have a look at Brentford first and I’ll make my decision on that, and how I want to play,” McCarthy said when asked whether Folami was in the frame for a full league debut at Griffin Park.

“I’d have no qualms about playing him, I thought he handled it very well on Monday, he played well and he’s trained with us today. He’s all right, he can play.

“We’ve got games on Saturday and Tuesday and Saturday, and that’s on the back of Saturday-Monday so there’ll be a few of the players playing.”

Right-back or central defender Cotter, 19, scored his first goal on a Blues shirt in Wednesday’s 2-1 U23s victory over Cardiff and has generally impressed his manager since arriving on deadline day.

“He’s all right, Cotter, I’m delighted with him,” McCarthy added. “There’s every chance he could take part in a game.”

Asked of there were any others involved for the U23s yesterday who might be involved for the first team in the remaining weeks, McCarthy added: “Tristan [Nydam] certainly, that’s why I took him off, he was coming off at half-time anyway. I thought Ben Morris did well, I thought Aaron Drinan did well.

“In the second half they all did much better, to be quite honest. But it was the two lads who are nowhere near really, little Mo [Sagaf] that came on and Brett McGavin as much changed the game, they got hold of the ball and passed it and kept it.

“But I thought we were playing well in the second half. It was a horrible day, my goodness, it was blowing a gale.”

Photos: TWTD/ITFC

hadleighboyblue added 16:22 - Apr 5 Yes please , Spence has been way off the pace recently
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BlueandTruesince82 added 17:07 - Apr 5 Yeah well Rachel Tilley is considering leaving her boyfriend for me but let's just see how things pan out shall we?
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BlueandTruesince82 added 17:20 - Apr 5 *Rilley
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catch74 added 19:00 - Apr 5 **Possibly Riley?
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Pilgrimblue added 20:29 - Apr 5 Folami is well overdue and just shows that after a good start the youngsters can lose impetus. As for Cotter, it would be change to see an Irish lad make it. He certainly stands a chance against our current RBs. Nydam has skill and pace but needs to get stronger to cope in this division but hopefully he will. What i've seen of Chris Smith he has every chance. Tall, calm on the ball, good passer and good header so ideal to challenge for place next season.

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