CITY manager Nigel Worthington’s belief of giving youth a chance was further evidenced during the last pre-season friendly against Sheffield United.

Besides Mike Atkinson and Chris Dickinson, the two firstyear players now on professional contacts, there were outings from the bench in the second half against Sheffield United for another duo of tyros – Harry Coates and Cameron Murray.

Right-back Atkinson was particularly impressive in his cameo outing over the last 25 minutes in which he excelled in defence, while Murray was the nuisance that tirelessly badgered the Blades defence into engineering the opening for Ryan Bowman’s late equaliser in the 1-1 draw.

Enthused Worthington: “Atkinson has grown during the course of the pre-season, which is good for him and for us. It’s different seeing a youngster perform in a competitive game and I am very pleased at that.

“It’s good also for the club that there are youngsters coming out of the academy. If they are good enough I will look to push them on.”