Former scholars round-up (09/11/21)

An unlikely scorer enjoying his American adventure; a 'Team Of The Season' inclusion in Australia and plenty of other lads scoring for fun closer to home - here's the latest round-up on the whereabouts of various one-time Doncaster Rovers youth team players!

Starting in Australia, Jordan Tucker has impressed many over the past year or so with his accomplished performances at full-back for South West Queensland Thunder. Along with scoring a 'Goal Of The Season' contender against Wynnum Wolves, he was recently included in the 'Team Of The Season' for the Queensland Premier League (which is the third tier in Australia) on the back of an impressive season where he was pretty much an ever-present. In total, he featured 24 times as his SWQ Thunder team reached the Play-Offs but were beaten 4-1 by Brisbane City in the Final.

Jordan Tucker features in the 'Team Of The Season' after his efforts at SWQT.

His fellow Australian, Nathan Dimou, has also just finished his first full campaign back at Adelaide Comets. To my understanding, despite topping the National Premier League (South Australia Section) table at the end of the regular season, a gut-wrenching penalty shoot-out defeat to cross-city rivals Adelaide City in the Play-Off Final meant they missed out on actually winning the title.

I haven't been able to find out specifically how many games Nathan played as information is often difficult to come by and haphazard, but he did make a handful of appearances (at least) - including one during August when he was potentially part of the youngest ever centre-back pairing to keep a clean-sheet (against Croydon Kings) in NPL history.

On the other side of the globe, Josh Clemitson has enjoyed a blistering start to his time at Aquinas College for whom he's established himself as a regular.

The defender-midfielder, a Youth Alliance title winner at DRFC in 2019/20, has bagged twice in the past month. His first goal came in a 2-0 win at Rochester and he was then on target the day before Halloween as Aquinas ran riot against Concordia and hammered their opponents 5-1.

Other ex-scholars in America at present include Lewis Scattergood who is enjoying a rich vein of form at Stetson University. The frontman has bagged four goals in his last eight outings - including a match-winner against Florida Atlantic and the opener versus Bellarmine, and is certainly doing everything he possibly can to impress everyone!

Furthemore, James Morris got his latest goal for Seattle Seahawks in a 3-2 victory over UTRGV and has weighed in with a couple of assists (against Utah Valley and Air Force) in recent weeks. Junior Smith is nearing a return from injury as he gets ready to start his career at Eastern Florida State College and revealed he likes to play chess in his spare time on his Player Profile... interesting indeed!

Josh Clemitson playing for Aquinas (Photo: @AQMensSoccer).

Back in Doncaster, Jack Watson's injury-enforced absence at NCEL (Division One) promotion hopefuls Rossington Main has paved the way for Myron Gibbons' arrival at Oxford Street and it'd be an understatement to say that he's 'hit the ground running' and impressed a lot of people.

One of the paceiest players ever to grace the Rovers youth set-up, 'Gibbo' bagged six goals in his first four appearances for Rozzo - including a hat-trick against Stocksbridge Park Steels in the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup on a night which also saw right-back Elliott Walker return to the club for whom he played last season. Another of Gibbons' strikes came in a comeback win at Swallownest. The turnaround on that occasion was completed thanks to a dramatic injury-time winner by Conner Williamson and that goal actually fired Ben Hunter's team to top spot in NCEL (Division One) for the first time this season, although they've since been replaced at the summit by big-spending North Ferriby.

Goalkeeper Kian Johnson also kept his latest clean-sheet in a 3-0 win against promotion outsiders Harrogate Railway Athletic - meaning he's now kept registered five shut-outs in league action for Rozzo this term.

Main, however, have lost a couple of games recently and one of them was a 2-0 reverse at Retford on a day where Matt Parkin was making his debut for the hosts. The midfielder has joined Retford from Staveley Miners Welfare in search of more game-time and got his first goal in a 4-1 win over 'joke club' FC Humber United last time out.

One of the Staveley's most frequent combinations this season has been 'Charlie Bell assist; Declan Howe goal' and the pair have been at it again despite some mixed recent results. 

The duo combined for the second goal in the Trojans' 2-0 success in a re-arranged fixture with Emley at Inkersall Road on a night which saw Jamie Price skipper the visitors. In total, Howe has struck 11 times in league/cup action following further goals against Winterton Rangers, Athersley Recreation and Eccleshill United recently, whilst Bell has a string of assists and impressive individual displays to his name. Meanwhile, current DRFC youth team 'keeper Luke Chadwick has also appeared in a few more game for Staveley recently (including the aforementioned win over Emley). Striker Rieves Boocock has remained largely in and out of the line-up - partly due to Howe's continued exploits inside the penalty box.

Declan Howe beats a couple of defenders as Charlie Bell watches on.

October also saw numerous one-time former youth team players compete in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying where, collectively, they had mixed success rates.

Having broken their own club record just by reaching this stage, Pontefract Colliers earned a credible 0-0 draw with FC Halifax Town in a game which saw Scott Brown come off the bench and receive a red card for a goal-preventing professional foul in the dying minutes. He was on the bench for replay at The Shay, three days later, but there was to be no fairytale ending for his Ponte team-mates as Halifax triumphed 1-0 at the second time of asking courtesy of a 65th minute winner.

Jack McKay also endured an afternoon to forget against his old employers as Chesterfield ran out comfortable 4-0 winners against Curzon Ashton. McKay, who made around two dozen appearances in his two-and-a-half year stint with the Spireites, spent the full game on the bench and watched on as his former partner in crime, none other than Liam Mandeville, bagged his only Chesterfield goal to date this season. McKay has also recently experienced a change of manager as Steve Cunningham was surprisingly dispensed with in the aftermath of this game (allegedly for talking to AFC Telford United about the vacant managerial post in Shropshire). He's been replaced by Adam Lakeland in the dugout and McKay went a long way to impressing him as he got one of Curzon's two goals in a comeback 2-2 draw with Spennymoor Town. 

There was FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round success for Shane Temple - a striker who came on trial and made a big impression in a couple of games for the youth team towards the end of last season. The 18-year-old netted for AFC Sudbury in a 3-1 win over Dartford - thus helping Sudbury become the lowest-ranked side to reach the First Round proper. Their reward was a tie against local rivals Colchester United which was shown live on BBC One, but sadly they succumbed to a 4-0 defeat in a game where he played just under an hour before being substituted.

Lewis Cunningham, meanwhile, was an unused sub as York City needed a replay to overcome plucky Morpeth Town to reach Round One. The left-back was again on the bench (for the seventh time this season) as the Minstermen exited the competition at the weekend by losing 1-0 at home to Buxton with the aforementioned Steve Cunningham (no relation) being the newly-appointed boss of the visitors. Lewis is still awaiting his first senior appearance but has continued his decent form at youth level and recently grabbed an assist as York's U19s won 1-0 at Darlington in the National League Youth Alliance.

Eastleigh, where Andrew Boyce is now in his fifth season, also needed a replay to overcome Folkestone Invicta (two divisions below them) to reach Round One. They're now out the FA Cup too, however, as they were beaten by Boreham Wood at the weekend - though the 32-year-old is now at least a few steps closer to reaching the landmark of 200 appearances for Eastleigh.

Shane Temple in action for Sudbury (Photo: Mecha Morton).

On the subject of landmarks/records, James Husband is fast-closing in on his 250th career appearance, whilst Paul McKay made his 75th appearance in Scottish Football as Queen Of The South drew 1-1 with Raith Rovers last time out.

Nowadays at Blackpool, Husband is currently on 248 appearances and featured most recently in the Seasiders' draw with QPR at the weekend. Good form over the past month has also seen them emerge as unlikely play-off hopefuls and they've been partly helped thanks to five goals this term by Jerry Yates - including a brace against Reading on Saturday 23rd October.

Yates was ridiculously released by Rovers and allowed to join Rotherham United when he was aged 16 and a youngster who'll be hoping to follow in his footsteps, having also made his departure from DRFC at a very young age, is Leeds United youth team striker Ben Andreucci. 

Sold to Leeds a couple of years ago, the striker recently turned 17 and has begun his Elland Road scholarship in brilliant form by scoring a brace and claiming an assist in a 5-2 win over Liverpool towards the end of September. That has been followed up with two more goals in a 5-1 rout of Newcastle United just a few days ago. 

Andreucci is certainly a name worth remembering and with international experience in Scotland and England’s youth training camps already under his belt, there are suggestions that Republic Of Ireland (whom he also qualifies for) are monitoring his progress as well.

Ben Andreucci... sold by DRFC and now scoring for Leeds at U18s level (Photo: Unknown).

A number of other ex-scholars got on the score-sheet during the past few weeks.

Michael Carberry put in a 'Man Of The Match' performance for Bootle - scoring one and claiming an assist after his half-time introduction in a 3-0 win over Prescot Cables. Craig Nelthorpe and Alex Peterson have also bagged two goals each for Belper Town - including in the same game where they walloped Bedworth United, 5-0, and Brad Grayson struck on successive Saturdays for Gainsborough Trinity in wins over Coalville Town and Atherton Collieries. Jack Muldoon struck a brace in Harrogate Town's 6-1 demolition of Scunthorpe United before then coverting a penalty in a 2-2 draw with Tranmere Rovers - thus meaning he's now got 54 goals in 152 outings since joining Simon Weaver's team. Billy Whitehouse also ended up in the National League North 'Team Of The Week' after a great display in a 2-1 win over Farsley Celtic for whom Will Longbottom was amongst the subs.

Meanwhile, several other lads have been on the move.

James Leverton has effectively become the latest replacement at Armthorpe Welfare for ex-academy 'keeper Callum Fielding who departed for Hallam last month but is now injured on a long-term basis and needing an operation. Leverton debuted for Armthorpe against North Ferriby at the weekend, and another 'keeper to have recently found a new club is Dec Ogley who has joined Denaby United. Omar Sanyang, part of the Rovers set-up in 2017/18, has joined FC United Of Manchester on a dual-registration deal from National League North outfit Darlington - whom he joined in the summer after a successful trial.

In a quirky move back to Doncaster Rovers (of sorts anyway), even Lewis Ferguson has come out of retirement and pulled on his boots again as he's joined Travs FC who compete in the DRFC Sunday Football League. It's no doubt a move that's beneficial for all parties; the team get arguably the best winger in the division whilst he probably gets a few beers afterwards too for his troubles!

Interestingly, there's actually quite a few ex-scholars from various clubs at Travs FC including Chris Whincop, Josh Meade (who is still playing at semi-pro level for Grantham Town) and defender Brett Lucas who was at Selby Town not too long ago.

And elsewhere in a move which hasn't yet unfolded but has been mooted on the bizarre and bonkers world of the Viking Supporters Forum, Evan Fortune-West (currently playing at Thorne Colliery and part of the academy set-up when he was younger) has been compared to Jamie Vardy amidst talk of him stepping up eight divisions, and 153 places in the league ladder, to join... Doncaster Rovers!

Whilst Evan isn't a bad player by any means, it'd be one hell of a step-up and the link for that bizarre discussion can be found here if you want to read it for yourselves.

Evan Fortune-West out-jumps youth team right-back Alex Fletcher during a pre-season game.

Of the former youth teamers still on Rovers' books, both Ben Blythe and Lirak Hasani have returned from their respective loan spells at Farsley Celtic and Matlock Town to feature frequently on the bench for the first team over the past few weeks.

They'll be hoping for a start in the EFL Trophy against Scunthorpe United this week - along with both Louis Jones and Branden Horton who did his chances no harm with a 'Man Of The Match' display in Rovers' FA Cup win (also against Scunthorpe) on Saturday.

AJ Greaves will sadly be out of action for some time though as he sustained an injury which cut short his loan spell at Redditch United, whilst Liam Ravenhill has moved to AFC Telford United on the back of completing a short-term stay at Mickleover. Goalkeeper Ben Bottomley is still present every day at Cantley Park but just hasn't been on loan anywhere nor in the matchday squad in recent weeks since his stay at Frickley Athletic reached its conclusion.

Finally, here's a well-earned mention for current youth team midfielder Will Hollings who became the 64th youth team player to be included in a DRFC matchday squad when he was an unused substitute in the previously FA Cup win at Scunthorpe.

A debut for him and Tavonga Kuleya, who has now been on the bench twice, may well materialise at some point in the very near future...

Apologies as always if I've missed anyone as it's obviously sometimes difficult keeping track of various lads playing in different divisions across the world.

The next round-up will be published at the start of next month. In the meantime, feel free to click on the following links if you've missed any previous articles on former DRFC scholars which features dozens more names: October | September | August | July |.