Former Crystal Palace academy product and Aldershot Town man on trial at Chesterfield

With around 15 minutes remaining of the match against Port Vale, someone who had not featured in any of the three previous friendlies, replaced Joe Rowley.

The DT can now reveal it was former Crystal Palace, Aldershot Town and Dartford attacking midfielder, Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong.

The 24-year-old, who is a Grenadian international, was at Palace from the age of eight and came through the academy along with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, now of Manchester United.

Despite penning a three-year professional contract at the Premier League club, he never broke into the first-team at the Eagles but was selected to go to two pre-season tours to America and Canada in 2016.

Berkeley-Agyepong, who has played on the left wing during his career as well as more centrally, left Palace at the end of 2017/18 season and signed for Aldershot Town after a successful trial.

Blues boss James Rowe will know all about him from his time as assistant manager at Aldershot.

He made 52 appearances for the Shots, scoring five goals, before signing for Dartford on loan, where he impressed hugely, scoring a couple of goals in a handful of appearances.

His form made Aldershot recall him, with Dartford manager Steve King saying at the time: “Everyone knows he is a good player, but I know he is another level of player. He is way above the level we are at.”

King was determined to bring back to the club, and he landed his number one transfer target last August.

“Having Jacob back was a massive one for me because Jacob’s time here was outstanding,” King said.

Berkeley-Agyepong was named in 2020/201 Concacaf Gold Cup, which took place last month, starting all three games against Hondurus, Qatar and Panama, playing on the right as one of three attacking midfielders.

He was joined in the Grenadian squad along with Town striker Kairo Mitchell.

He is likely to feature in Wednesday’s behind closed doors fixture against Aston Villa’s under-23s and possibly on Saturday when Chesterfield host Tamworth, again behind closed doors.