Manager Paul Lambert says he judges the U18s team on players coming through rather than results, the team coached by Adem Atay and Kieron Dyer having beaten Andover Town 4-0 at Portman Road on Tuesday to progress to the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup.

“I never really take the result too seriously, [it’s more about] if the kids can push up to the U23s and then push up to the first team,” he said.

“I judge a lot of that on how quickly the kids are coming through, it’s not all about results for me personally. I don’t look at the result every time, it’s the development of the players, whether they can step up to the U23s and then come into the first team.

“There are one or two there who I think are pretty decent, so there’s a good little nucleus there, but they’ve still got a lot of distractions before they get to the first team. But the early signs of what I’ve seen, they’ve been very good.”

The player who caught most fans’ attention against Andover having made an impressive start to the season which has seen him win Tunisia U23s caps and be offered a pro deal by the Blues was 18-year-old midfielder Idris El Mizouni (pictured above).

“He’s doing well, Idris, he is doing really well,“ Lambert added. “But the thing for me is that we’ve got a helluva lot of young players here anyway who are probably just a wee bit advanced on him at the minute.

“But again, I can’t sit here and hang my hat on somebody at the minute, we have to get a little bit more [experience] in the first team without a doubt. Hopefully I can get that in January. He’s one to keep an eye on and nurture but there’s still a helluva long way for him to go.”

Photo: TWTD

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