Academy manager Sam Sutton is thrilled to see three under 23s graduates thriving in Richard Tracey’s Emley AFC first team.
The biggest success story of Emley’s first season at Step 5 has been the emergence of youngsters Lennon O’Grady, Jack Bennett and George Doyle.
Doyle has been the stand-out prodigy as he is one of the Division’s top goal-scorers and Sutton is over the moon that the club’s hard work is paying off.
“We had 12 players at different times last season that played with the first team,” Sutton told Non League Yorkshire.
“Now most of them were behind closed doors friendlies.
“Following on, we had ten of our players training with the first team for the full pre-season this year.
“The first team ended up taking three players permanently.
“George Doyle, Jack Bennett and Lennon O’Grady have all been regular players for the first team this season.
“We’ve had another seven players from this year’s under 23s squad that have been going between the first team and under 23s.
“Everyone can say ‘we give young players a chance’ and some clubs do and some clubs might play players for five minutes when they are winning 3-0.
“The biggest thing for us is; the three lads who have moved up permanently are all contributing.
“George is the first team’s top goal-scorer and he’s got nine goals and he’s one of the top goal-scorers in the Division.
“He isn’t going in as a bit-part player, he’s going in and is a prominent figure.
“Jack is the second top goal-scorer and Lennon has started the last five or six games so they are all making big contributions which is important to me because you don’t want players moving up and getting bit-parts and stagnating.
“To be fair to Richard, when’s taken them he’s given them a real chance and it has proved worthwhile for him as they’re doing well for him.”
The under 23s also enjoyed success on the pitch earlier this year as they won the West Riding County FA Under 23s Cup in June.
At the same time Emley were establishing an under 18s side and they’re now reaping the rewards.
“We set up an under 18s team that would feed into our under 23s team in future years,” Sutton said.
“Most of our rival clubs have that age group and we wanted to make sure we could capture players at that age and have a bit longer with them to develop them.
“That’s gone really well and we recruited a really good management led by Dom Webster, a great young coach from Huddersfield.
“They’re took a new group of players and developed a really good style of play that is exciting to watch.
“They score a lot of goals and they play good football.
“They had success and disappointment in the FA Youth Cup.
“They won the first round against Staveley quite convincingly and ultimately came unstuck in a penalty shootout at Bradford (Park Avenue) in a game that we dominated.”
Looking to the future, Sutton is hopeful Emley will see more talent break in Tracey’s first team.
“I know from working closely with Richard that it was always his intention to give young players a chance,” he said.
“That’s why we set up the under 23s up 18 months ago because we’d have the regular influx of players.
“We have had three through (into the first team) already and looking at the (under 23s) group now I’m fairly confident we’ll have a few more (going into the first team) this time next year as well.
“Things are going quite well.
“Our aim from day one has been always to be the best at what we do.
“We’re looking at other local clubs and thinking ‘right how can we make sure we are the best and stay the best’?
“The only way you can do that is by keeping evaluating what you do and look at ways you can improve.
“We’re in a position where we are comfortable with what we have but we’re looking to step up what is a good programme with the under 18s and 23s and making it an even better experience for those players.
“Then we’ll look to get our recruitment right for next season so next year we have a really good crop of players coming to join us.”