West Brom have stepped up their academy work this summer.

The Baggies are increasing their efforts to strengthen the flow of home-reared players towards first-team consideration.

Albion's recent Academy-to-first team journey has been travelled only by Jared Hodgkiss and Stuart Nicholson.

Conscious of that and still smarting over the loss of highly-rated James Hurst to Portsmouth, the Baggies have had a record intake of 12 to 16-year-olds.