SOUTHEND United’s academy manager Ricky Duncan has urged Richard Taylor to do more to build on his Shrimpers debut.

The young centre-back impressed in the Shrimpers’ 3-1 win against AFC Wimbledon in the Leasing.com Trophy last week.

But Duncan still wants to see more from the 19-year-old who joined Blues last summer after being released by Burnley.

“Richard’s gone from strength to strength but he still needs to be more professional,” said Duncan.

“He’s a good kid but our standards are different to others and I still feel he needs to meet them.

“It’s great he’s shown the manager he has something to offer but I do think he could still do more around the training ground and that will come with experience.”

But Duncan remains pleased to see Taylor breaking through to the first team.

“We run an open trial day at the end of every year for players who have been released and Richard came to that,” said Duncan.

“He played the last six games of the season with the youth team who won the league.

“We decided to give him a contract and what was good was he came in two or three days a week all the way through the summer to work. He’s gone from strength to strength since then too.”