COLCHESTER United will not rest on their laurels despite being granted elite academy status for another year, according to Football Operations Manager Tony Ashby.

The U’s highly-regarded youth set-up has retained its sought-after Category Two grading as part of the national Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), which aims to develop more and better home-grown players.

Colchester’s academy is essential in their philosophy to provide a clear pathway for their young players to reach the first team.

And as a Category Two club, they will get extra funding, a superior games programme and greater protection against other clubs poaching their best young talent.

But despite home-grown youngsters making more than 200 senior appearances this season, club director Ashby says they will continue to strive for more.

Ashby told the Daily Gazette: “It’s crucial that we retained Category Two status, particularly with the games programme that it provides our young players.

“We were given a couple of things that we need to work on after being assessed but it’s about progressing and we will not stand still.

Colchester United are doing a lot of the right things in the right way and that’s something that has been acknowledged by the EFL.

“The result of that is the number of academy-produced players in the first team - a total of 12,000 minutes of first-team football were played by our academy graduates, this season.

“That makes up 25 per cent of game time and some of those players have been regular ones.

“I’m very pleased with how our young players have adapted and stepped up.

“Tom Lapslie for example has been playing week in, week out and Cameron James is another who has come through the system and forced his way into the first team.

“He was a regular before he picked up his injury and I think he would have probably finished the season in the team, had he stayed fit.

“We’ve surpassed what we’ve achieved every season and we’ll be looking to do the same again, next time around - last season, it was 11,000 minutes of first-team football for our academy graduates.

“We’ve exceeded that from last season, even with the likes of Frankie Kent and Sammie Szmodics picking up injuries.”

Club academies are independently audited every three years and awarded a Category status between one and four, with one the most elite.

Factors such as coaching, education and welfare provisions, training facilities and productivity rates are all taken into account, when academy set-ups are graded.

Colchester’s academy is due to be assessed again in March 2018 and if they get the green light after that, their Category Two status will be secured for a further two years.