Young defender gets U's opportunity.
Colchester United are pleased to confirm that they have signed left back Ben Wyatt, after he impressed with Maldon & Tiptree last season.
20-year-old Ben spent eight years with Norwich City's Academy, before joining Ipswich Town on a year's professional contract.
After leaving the Portman Road club, he joined Maldon & Tiptree to play in the Ryman League and secured a treble at the Jammers' end of season awards, picking up the Supporters' Player of the Year, Manager's Player of the Year and Players' Player of the Year awards.
Ben spent the second half of the campaign under the management of Steve Ball and, having worked with the U's U21s in 2015/16, Steve of course moved up to become assistant manager at the end of the season.
Steve was delighted to have snapped Ben up, saying: "Ben is a player who embraced joining Maldon from day one. He didn't see the move as a backward step for him and has had the right mental approach to what was required from him.
"He was outstanding from the very start of the season. He's an aggressive defender, good at going forward and very much the modern day full back."
Ben becomes the second player to make the switch from Maldon & Tiptree to the U's, following in the footsteps of Femi Akinwande.
Femi scored regularly for the U's U21s before breaking through to the first team towards the end of the season and Steve expects Ben to follow a similar path.
"The Maldon project means that Ben has experienced a year of playing against strong, athletic players, so he's had a good grounding before coming here," he added.
"When he comes back in the summer, he'll start with the U21s to get him used to the pace of the game compared to that at Maldon but, after a few months, I’m sure he will be looking to get involved with John and the first team."