JACK HUNT has a great chance of forcing his way into Lee Clark’s plans for the rest of the League I campaign.
That’s the view of Town’s boss after the 20-year-old was handed his first-team debut as a late substitute in Saturday’s goalless draw with Colchester at the Galpharm.
Hunt is back from a successful loan spell at League II leaders Chesterfield, who tried to extend the academy product’s stay, and also made an offer to take him permanently.
Clark, however, believes the versatile player can cut it in League I and explained: “He’s impressed me since returning from Chesterfield, and I believe the loan spell was time very well spent.
“He is a part of my plans for the second half of the season, and that’s why I told Chesterfield we didn’t want him to go back on loan.
“They thought highly enough of him to try for a permanent move, but it would take a very good offer.”
Hunt, on the bench four times last season, when he had a spell on loan at non-league Grays Athletic, came on as an 86th-minute replacement for Gary Roberts.
“It’s not his normal position, but I wanted to try and use his pace and athleticism and I thought it might give them a few problems,” said Clark.
“He’s predominantly a right-back who likes to get forward.
“We’ve been working on the defensive side of his game and I’ve already seen an improvement.”
Town, who are third in the table, remain unbeaten in the league in 2011, but Clark was disappointed at the failure to take all three points against 10th-placed Colchester.
“You go into all your home games wanting to win,” he added.
“There was pressure on the players after the performance at Carlisle last Tuesday (when Town lost 4-0 in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern final first leg) and I think we showed the opposite from then in terms of character, desire and commitment, but that’s what you need every game.
“It was tough because Colchester came with a good gameplan.
“We tried very hard to win, and we might well have nicked it, but they could also say that because Ian Bennett had to make a couple of good saves near the end, when we got a little bit anxious and caused ourselves one or two problems.
“If you can’t win a game, don’t lose it, and we’ve gone five unbeaten in the league now.
“We have to keep chugging along, because like I’ve said before, we need to be putting together runs of 10 or more games without defeat.”
