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10:27am Friday 4th April 2008
TEENAGE striker Adam Boyes' midweek reserve hat-trick has earned him a recall to York City's first-team squad.
The 17-year-old youth-team graduate made his debut as a second-half replacement during City's FA Trophy semi-final, second leg against Torquay United.
But, since then, Boyes has only made the bench once as an unused substitute in the 1-1 home draw with Northwich.
His treble show during the 5-0 victory over Barnsley reserves on Wednesday, though, has persuaded City boss Colin Walker to include the Lingdale-born youngster in his travelling party for Crawley.
Walker said: "Adam hadn't scored for a while and was getting a bit leggy, so the hat-trick will have done his confidence the world of good. The performance was also a fitting tribute after we learned the reserve team was going to be continued.
"He scored a header and two with his right foot. He's grown a lot since he's been at the football club and the one thing he has got is a natural awareness of where the ball is going to go - both in and outside the box.
"I'm not sure you can teach that and he's definitely one for the future. He will travel with us today, although I've not decided yet whether we will use him or not."
But another teenager - 18-year-old goalkeeper Josh Mimms - will keep his place in goal after making his senior City debut during Tuesday night's 3-2 defeat at Stevenage, with Walker adding: "He will play again tomorrow because we are looking at him and seeing how he copes.
"He looked confident and it's great for the football club if we bring young players on. I'm also hoping Andy McWilliams and Liam Shepherd will get another taste before the end of the season."
Walker added that Mimms' promotion did not necessarily mean he had decided on senior stopper Tom Evans' future at the club.
He said: "I've not done anything about next season yet. I told Tom I was going to give Josh a go and he fully understood.
"He was a consummate professional when he played for the reserves on Wednesday and I'm sure having him behind them gave our young players a lot of confidence."
On-loan Rotherham winger Sam Duncum will not travel to Crawley and captain Manny Panther is likely to be left at home for a second successive match with Walker unconvinced about his fitness.
But the City chief is hoping striker Craig Farrell can return to action next week.
He said: "We've got to kick on with Faz. We know there's nothing wrong now apart from bad bruising and he may need to play through the pain barrier."
Crawley (probable): Bayes, Murphy, Thomas, Krause, Thompson, Bullman, Blackburn, Hall, Pinault, Pittman, Dubois. Subs: Cook, Carter, Nayee, Raynor, Barton.
City (probable): Mimms, Purkiss, Craddock, McGurk, Parslow, Lloyd, Elliott, Rusk, Wroe, Brodie, Woolford. Subs from: Evans, Robinson, Hall, Sodje, Fortune-West, Boyes.
Referee: Andy Halliday (London).
OB, Riccall says...
11:30am Fri 4 Apr 08
lmp, York says...
6:41pm Fri 4 Apr 08
nudger, herts says...
7:40pm Fri 4 Apr 08
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I remember Tommy Forgan, Lancashire says...
11:08am Fri 4 Apr 08
It's pretty obvious that the club won't be able to buy decent quality players in the summer so the younger players are really our only hope.
Let's hope the best of the present first team will stay to add the necessary experience. I think we will need McGurk, Parslow, Woolford, Wroe, Sodje, Brodie and possibly Purkiss, Lloyd, Farrell, Craddock, Rusk and Panther (if he can sort his head/injury out). It could be a very young team next season but so what? My only worry is that in this league any team needs at least a couple of gorillas to combat the physical approach used by some teams, especially since the referees are ineffectual.