Boss says none of our next generation will be rushed through

The promising Callum Saunders will only be propelled in to the Crewe Alexandra first-team when the time is right. The Wales Under-21 International showed a glimpse of his knack for goal scoring when superbly heading Crewe’s fourth goal at Nantwich on Sunday.

Saunders, 18, was one of six promising youngsters to sign his first professional contract, and the club firmly believe that they have a natural goal getter coming through the ranks, but Steve Davis says he will bring through the striker only when he is truly ready.

Steve told crewealex.net: “Callum showed his talent for scoring goal with a fantastic header. His movement is terrific and he has that knack of being in the right place at the right time. He is a natural goal scorer.

“It was a good cross from Lee (Molyneux) and Callum was clever with his movement to get himself that yard to head home. He is a clever player.

“He also mis-cued a couple of efforts and could have had a hat-trick but it is still early in pre-season and the strikers timing and technique isn’t coming to be there quite yet. We will do some work on that with all of them and get them confidently striking the ball and scoring goals.

“Callum is a prospect, like a lot of them are, but we will only put them in when they are ready. We just don’t put them in because they are one of our kids. They have to be ready and they all have some work to do. The talent is there, they just have to develop physically.”