Shrewsbury youngsters could be on the move
Matt Taylor is hopeful some of Shrewsbury Town’s young players can go out and get senior minutes on loan.
Tuesday was a historic evening for Town as Simba Nyamwanza became the club’s youngest-ever player on his 16th birthday, when he was introduced from the bench against Walsall in the EFL Trophy.
Six academy players featured in the game, but other youth products, who are first-year professionals with Shrews, made a rare appearance too.
Town’s EFL Trophy campaign is now over, so the only way the likes of Declan Hutchings and Nana Owusu can get senior minutes is on loan, which Taylor has admitted is a possibility.
“Hopefully they now get the opportunities to go and play football because it is hard for us to bridge the gap between the under-18s and our first team programme as we do not have an under-23s or an under-21s,” he said.
“The best way to do that is to try and get them into the men’s game, at what step that is I do not know.
“That is where Micky is really strong in terms of the local connections, so I know that a couple of our lads have been training with local teams. It is now just a case of making sure that when they do get the opportunity to go out and play, that they can do themselves
justice.”
The duo have been training with the Town first team squad for the majority of this season and that is something Taylor thinks will have benefitted them massively.
“The one thing that those players do have is exposure to our training every day and that has brought them on a hell of a lot technically and physically,” he continued. “Hopefully there will have been people there on Tuesday evening watching them.”
One of the other first-year professionals that did not feature on Tuesday night was Josh Bailey.
He is the only one who has made a League One appearance after he made his debut last year in Town’s 1-0 defeat to Barnsley – he came on as a substitute for Jordan Shipley in the 81st minute.
The youngster would have been involved in the game on Tuesday night at the Croud Meadow, a clash that Shrews ended up winning 3-2, but he missed out with a back injury. It is not understood to be a serious one.
