LOCAL lads Noah Lucas and Dane Byron have signed two-year scholarships with Vanarama National League side FC Halifax Town.
It represents a meteoric rise for the 15-year-old Noah from Mossley who was only invited for trials by The Shaymen in September.
Noah, a pupil at Mossley Hollins High School, currently plays for Town’s Under-16 side but will join the club permanently in the summer.
Father Neil said: “It is quite a story for Noah to come from nowhere – he had only played grassroots football – to get a scholarship in the space of four months.
“It was the opposite to his older brother Oscar who was in Liverpool’s academy between the ages of five and 16 and then didn’t get a scholarship.”
Noah, who is a winger, played form Stalybridge Celtic Juniors and had trials at Oldham Athletic towards the end of last season. He also plays for Tameside Boys.
Apart from football, Noah was also a talented basketball player, starring for Manchester Giants’ at junior level in the National League.
And recently he was a member of the Mossley Hollins team which won the Tameside Schools’ Cross-Country Championships.
Goalkeeper Dane, 16, from Stalybridge, has also impressed Town sufficiently to be handed a scholarship from next summer.
It has made up for the disappointment of being released by Premier League club Burnley where he spent two years until his release.
Dane, a pupil at St Damian’s RC Science College, Ashton, recently had trials at several clubs before being handed a deal by Town where he currently plays for their U16s.
Before joining Burnley, Dane starred for Moston-based Manchester Lions. He also currently plays for Tameside Boys and Greater Manchester Boys.
- Meanwhile, Noah’s elder brother Oscar, 19, is training with the Scotland Futsal squad as they prepare for World Cup qualifiers.
Also a former Mossley Hollins student, Oscar was part of the England Under-19 Futsal squad until the Football Association pulled finding for the team in September.
Luckily Oscar’s mother was born in Glasgow which means he can also play for them and recently attended a training weekend in Perth.
Oscar, a coach at the Tameside-based Sala Futsal Club, also plays for Bolton in tier one of the FA National Futsal Series.
He also plays semi-professional football for Clitheroe featuring in their U21 side which plays in the Lancashire Football League.