Elliott Dickman has lavished praise on the extensive work of Sunderland under-18s’ backroom staff over the past season.
Progression on the field as well as off it has seen second-year scholar Josh Robson feature mainly for the development team this season, while Daniel Wright, Andrew Nelson, Denver Hume, Dan Casey and Luke Molyneux have also been credited with opportunities in the under-21s set-up.
But besides stepping up, chances to train with the first team have also been frequent as Josh Maja has been asked to train with Sam Allardyce’s side.
Speaking to safc.com Dickman has hailed the work that goes on behind the scenes to give his young players the best chance of progressing through the youth system.
“There is Clifford Byrne, Greg Irvine, Patrick Keeling, Ged McNamee, Andrew Baylis, Mark Atkinson and Jordan Rowan who have all been really supportive,” he said.
“Their help is crucial to support me in what we do and it’s important to give those people a special mention because it’s a very demanding programme that we deliver.
“I’m very grateful to all the staff, Paul Bracewell, Robbie Stockdale and all of them that they are looking after the lads greatly.
“For us as an academy we are delighted and hopefully there are one or two others who aren’t too far away from making the step-up either,” he continued.
“It is fantastic but they might only get one opportunity with our manager and you have got to take it and Josh in particular did that.”
