COLCHESTER United's teenage debutant Todd Miller has been tipped for a big future in the game after becoming the club's youngest-ever player.

The teenage winger, who is 16 years and 166 days old, achieved the special milestone when he replaced Courtney Senior as a late substitute for the U's in their 3-0 defeat at Exeter City, on Saturday afternoon.

Miller, who is still a Year 11 pupil at Shenfield High School, looked confident when he came on and even had the ball in net for Colchester at St James' Park, only to see the effort ruled out for offside.

He is 48 days younger than the previous holder of the landmark Lindsay Smith was at the time of his U's first-team bow.

Miller is Colchester's second academy player to make his first-team debut in the space of seven days, following midfielder Noah Chilvers clocking up his first senior appearance against Newport County, last Saturday.

Despite only turning 16 last October, pacy attacker Miller has shone for the under-23s this season, much to the delight of first-team boss John McGreal.

McGreal said: "I think young Todd has got a fantastic future ahead of him.

"You could see that he was involved straight away there and he has tons and tons of pace.

"He tends to get himself into lovely little positions.

"He was unfortunate for his little offside, when he was on the back end of the full-back.

"He got an opportunity and that's what we do - we give these boys opportunities as we did with Noah Chilvers last week.

"That's the path as well, trying to win games but also knowing that we want to get these boys through the academy.

"It's getting that balance act at the minute, which we're not quite getting."