Young guns offered deals

JAMES Tarkowski, Matty D Carr and Connor Hughes have been offered professional deals, but the situation regarding Carl Winchester is unclear.

PROMISING teenager James Tarkowski is one of three scholars to be offered a professional contract for next season — but there is no news yet on Carl Winchester.

Centre-back Tarkowski, along with fellow second-years Matty D Carr and Connor Hughes, were informed by the club earlier that they were wanted by manager Paul Dickov.

Bury-born Carr is also a centre-back, who came to the fore with a good showing in the 3-0 pre-season win over a strong Bolton line-up, while Hughes is Bolton-based and operates wide on either flank.

The length of the contracts has not yet been determined.

As for Winchester — a scorer this week for Northern Ireland under-19s in a 3-1 defeat of Slovakia — the situation is, as yet, unclear.

A huge talent, the 18-year-old has made three first-team appearances at right-back this season despite only being in the first year of his scholarship. He has another year to run, but so did countryman Kirk Millar last season when he was offered professional terms.

Scouts from higher-level clubs are aware of Winchester’s clear potential.

“We are continually monitoring the situation with Carl,” Athletic chief executive Alan Hardy said today.

Head of youth Tony Philliskirk, who welcomes in a new influx of scholars next Wednesday, had the task of informing the second-years who haven’t been offered terms. The unlucky men are Andrew Crompton, Matty A Carr, Greg Kidd and Shaun Routledge.




BRIGHTON sealed promotion to the npower Championship with a 4-3 home win over Dagenham.



The Seagulls had to come from behind twice to claim the victory, which took them 16 points clear of second-placed Southampton, beaten 2-0 by Rochdale at Spotland (see Page 35).

Yeovil, who Athletic travel to face this weekend, were 2-1 winners at home over struggling Notts County thanks to a pair of goals from Dean Bowditch.