Young Blues already catching the eye

Birmingham City’s promising young players are already earning themselves impressive reputations within the game.

Right up there with the best of them is goalkeeper Dean Lyness, who has already earned recognition with England at Under 16 and Under 17 level.

Shrugging off an injury concern, Dean was drafted into the England Under 17 squad for the UEFA Championship qualifying tournament in Estonia, having made his debut in the Nordic Tournament during the summer.

It was a highly successful competition for England as they topped the group, with Dean doing his reputation no harm by keeping a clean sheet in the 6-0 thrashing of home nation Estonia.

Birmingham’s Football Education Officer, Richard Beale, is rightly proud of the young goalkeeping prospect – and many of his other charges as well. “Dean is currently involved with a Business Studies course and is also studying for A-Levels on top of the ASE programme,” he commented.

“Striker Robert Gradwell is doing a Maths course as well as his A-levels and the ASE programme, while other up-and-coming youngsters we have high hopes of are Jordon Mutch and Krystian Pearce, who have both already represented England.

“Our young players have recently been coaching our 9-12 year-old academy youngsters as part of their FA Level 2 Coaching Certificate, and we are also through to Round Five of The FA Youth Cup with a trip to either Portsmouth or Plymouth awaiting us.”

Positive signs all round at St Andrews.

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