Newcastle United hero Rob Lee is proud of son Oliver's progress at West Ham United.

Ollie, who is 17, has been a regular member of Tony Carr's Under-18 side in this season's FA Premier Academy League. A midfield player like his father, the younger Lee also impressed in the Barclays Premier Academy League South fixture against Aston Villa earlier this month in an unaccustomed right wing-back position.

Dad Rob is a permanent fixture at his son's matches and takes an active interest in Ollie's development into, he hopes, a top-class footballer in his own right.

"Ollie has been progressing very well, especially recently," said Rob on whufc.com. "His confidence has gone right up. He's a big lad and he's still developing. He's not one of those that developed very quickly - it's just been slow progress over the course of the last year or so and he's starting to look like a bit of a player now.

"Having a Dad like myself sometimes helps and sometimes it's a hindrance. I don't say anything during the games, I leave that to Tony Carr and the coaching team and rightly so. I tell him how I think he played after the games and I'll be very critical of the way he played and to be fair to him he's very critical of the way he plays anyway and knows when he has done well and when he hasn't. I give him advice when it's needed and I tell him off when it's needed and I give him praise when it's due."