Academy midfielder Jack Willbye’s 45-yard stunner during Town’s FA Youth Cup tie with Sunderland has won the League Football Education December 2013 U18 Academy Leagues Goal of the Month award.
Town’s U18s lost 3-1 in a friendly to Crystal Palace at a bitterly cold Playford Road on Saturday morning. Tom Winter’s first-half strike was cancelled out by three second-half Palace goals after a raft of Town substitutions at the break.
Boss Mick McCarthy has revealed that second-year academy scholar Kyle Hammond will be joining the Blues’ professional staff, despite facing seven to nine months out after rupturing an anterior cruciate knee ligament during last Saturday’s 3-1 U18s defeat at QPR.