Corey Blackett-Taylor scores first senior goal after Aston Villa release, Micky Mellon praises player

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Aston Villa parted ways with a number of of their talented youngsters in the summer, including Corey Blackett-Taylor.

To the surprise of some Aston Villa supporters, the club decided over the summer that they were going to release a number of their highly-rated talents.

Whilst academy players are leaving their clubs without having played a single minute or had very little game time for the senior side every summer, Villa, on this occasion, were parting ways with a high volume of stars.

One of those players was winger Corey Blackett-Taylor, who has since found a new home at League One side Tranmere Rovers, where he is working under the stewardship of Micky Mellon.

The 22-year-old put in strong performances, week in, week out for Villa’s U23’s, but since his move to Tranmere, he was still searching for his first senior goal.

Well, on Sunday, he got just that when netted a late winner for his side against Coventry City, who play their home games at the ground of Villa’s bitter rivals, St Andrew’s.

Blackett-Taylor wasn’t the only Villa academy product on that pitch because Callum O’Hare was playing for Coventry, as Dean Smith has sent the playmaker on a season-long loan to the Sky Blues.

Added with that, Blackett-Taylor was also part of the same attacking line which included Villa striker Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, he too is on a season-long loan, but at Tranmere.

This is what Mellon told Sky Sports News (14/10/2019) about Blackett-Taylor, and how he is hoping the ‘penny will drop’ with him in regards with the talent he has in his locker.

“He’s such a talent,” Mellon said. “We just felt that he wasn’t getting to the asks of what the game is asking of him in the first half, so we put him up top. We know little Rushian [Hepburn-Murphy] will come in and work his socks off. You know he’s a constant threat with his power and his pace. The thing with him is that the penny will drop at some stage and he will realise what a threat he is.”

Blackett-Taylor will be hoping to kick on from now and start proving his worth in the third-tier of English football.

He still has plenty of time to prove to his former club Villa that they were wrong to release him in the summer, as there is no doubt that he has the talent to hurt opposition defences.