West Ham academy chief Tony Carr says England U19 striker Freddie Sears is ready to play regularly with the club's reserve-team.

"At our level now, Freddie is scoring an absolute minimum of one a game," Carr told whufc.com. "He is scoring lots and lots of goals and he is having a good season. He is training with the first team on a regular basis now and working with the senior players is doing him a lot of good. Obviously he is one that we hope can push on and reproduce his form at a more senior level. That is the key. We have had many a great youth player that can't make that step and Fred has to show that he can replicate his form in the reserves and then at a higher level in the future.

"I have been in football for too long to hang my hat fully on players. You hope and you bring them along the right paths but they have to take the opportunities when they come along. Freddie's doing that at the moment with us, he has been playing well in training and in performances for the reserves but certainly for next season and beyond he has got to replicate that form with us and carry it through to more senior football."