October 21 2008

Selhurst Park

Young defender NATHANIEL CLYNE has signed his first professional contract with Crystal Palace.

The teenager sparkled on his debut at right-back in place of the injured Danny Butterfield in Palace's 3-0 win over Barnsley at Selhurst Park.

He pens a three-year contract and joins fellow Academy products Victor Moses, Sean Scannell, Lee Hills and Kieran Djilali who have also broken into the first team under boss Neil Warnock.

Warnock said: "It was great to see him sign his first professional contract with us. I have been impressed with him for quite some time now and have even said before that, should Butts be injured, I would have no concerns in putting him in the first team."

Assistant manager Mick Jones added: "With Neil there is no fear because he doesn’t allow the kids to play with it - there’s just lots of encouragement.

"It’s only after they get 10 or 12 games under their belt that we start asking more of them. At the beginning we just want them to go out and enjoy their football, which is all they’ve done for the last six or seven years at the club."