Youngster does enough to earn extended stay with Wigan Athletic
Llyton Chapman's impressive 'character and mentality' were the overriding factors in him signing his first professional contract with Wigan Athletic.
The 19-year-old right back, who recently left the Academy at Oldham Athletic, has turned out for the Wigan first team during their pre-season.
Indeed, he impressed Shaun Maloney enough at Fylde last month that he was name-checked in the post-match press conference despite playing as a trialist.
Chapman - who has loan experience in the North West Counties League Premier Division at Chadderton, will link up with the Latics' Under-21 squad for the forthcoming campaign.
“We are delighted Llyton is joining us on the next stage of his football journey," said Academy manager Jake Campbell.
“Credit must go to our Academy head of recruitment, Ste Flight, who has been keen on bringing Llyton to the club since seeing him playing non-league senior football last season.
“Llyton has positive, physical and technical attributes, but what has stood out during his time with us so far is his character and mentality, which aligns well with what we are pushing for at the Academy.
“We are excited to see what the future holds for Llyton and look forward to seeing how he develops over the next couple of seasons.”
After the Fylde game - which saw Chapman assist a goal for Thelo Aasgaard, Maloney had revealed the bizarre sequence of events that had seen him appear on the field.
"It's a crazy story really," said the Latics manager. "I watched our Under-21s play a game at our training ground, and they have maybe four or five trialists.
"But Llyton stood out really, the attitude he showed and the quality he had when he had the ball, the desire to actually cover big distances…
"I saw enough in that game to think that we probably needed him in these two games. I know we're really light in terms of numbers, but for an Under-21s trialist, to produce a performance like that, yeah it's very good for him.
"I don't normally bring trialists into the first team. He came as an Under-21 trialist, so it's probably going to be up to the reserves to make that decision. But I thought he's been brilliant, so he's certainly not done himself any harm."