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Toshack looks to Coyne as net losses bite

Paul Walker
Thursday 18 August 2005 00:00 BST
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Coyne is not a regular starter for Burnley - the 31-year-old played in his side's first two matches before being dropped on Saturday against Coventry - and he made a crucial blunder against Austria in a previous qualifier. But Toshack fielded the Clarets stopper for last night's friendly against Slovenia in Swansea after Lewis Price picked up an injury at the weekend while playing for Ipswich.

Toshack would have given Price, 21, his debut, which could have earned him a place against England on 3 September but the stopper now faces two weeks on the sidelines.

Toshack said: "Losing Lewis Price is unfortunate. Our goalkeeping situation hasn't been the healthiest and we finished last season without a 'keeper playing regularly for their club first team. Price has started this season in the Ipswich side but he was injured on Saturday... I did say after the March game with Austria in Vienna, when Danny Coyne was very unfortunate to have conceded what people felt was a bad goal, that he would start the next match. But now [Lewis is not fit] Danny will almost certainly be in for the England game. I would have liked to say to Lewis, 'Here's your debut against Slovenia, now take it from here and win the spot'. But he's out and should be back in action in a fortnight."

Brian Flynn, the Under-21s manager, believes Derby County's Lewin Nyatanga has a big future in the game after he was made the Wales Under-21 captain two days before his 17th birthday. In February the 6ft 2in centre-back became Wales' youngest Under-21 player, at 16 years 174 days, as a second-half substitute against Germany at Wrexham.

Nyatanga, who qualifies for Wales through a Newport-born grandmother, was thrown the armband in the second half of the 3-1 victory over Malta at Llanelli on Tuesday night. Flynn said: "It is clear for everyone to see that he has a chance of making it. Potential is a huge word - it is realising it that is important."

Derby born and bred, Nyatanga was the first player Flynn looked to when the original captain Lee Beevers was substituted at the break. Flynn said: "When I first watched [Lewin] play at Derby I knew we had something special on our hands. He has been training all pre-season with the Derby first-team squad.

"Lewin has a great touch, two good feet, and I feel he has more than a decent chance of making it to a much higher level."

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