Following a fine start to the 2021-22 campaign, Rovers have delighted the fans further by announcing that academy graduate and upcoming centre-half, Hayden Carter, has committed his long-term future to the club.
The 21-year-old defender, who has been with Rovers since 2014 after leaving Manchester City, has put pen-to-paper on a new three-year deal until June 2024, with the club holding the option to extend his stay in East Lancashire by an additional 12 months.
After emerging through the club’s youth levels, the 6’2” defender, who impressed at both ends, in yesterday’s 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest, earnt his first taste of football at senior level for Rovers during the latter stages of the troubled 2019-20 season, as he marked his debut by playing all 90 minutes in the penultimate game of that campaign, as Rovers ran out 4-3 winners over Reading at Ewood Park. Carter was then rewarded a week later, as he made it 180 minutes played in Rovers’ first-team for 2019-20 as he again played the full game, as Rovers fell to a 3-2 away defeat at Luton Town in the final game of that campaign.
Despite his brief exposure to football at Championship level, Tony Mowbray and his staff felt that Carter would benefit with a stint playing ‘men’s football’, as in January 2021, Carter linked up with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s struggling Burton Albion, who at the time were sat bottom of League One and were eight points adrift of safety. The young defender proved to be a miraculous capture for the Brewers as, after netting the only goal in an away win at Gillingham, the young defender would go on to keep seven clean sheets in the next 11 games, as Hasselbaink’s side ended the season, ten points adrift of the drop zone.
With Burton Albion and their fans, forever grateful for Carter’s contributions in black and yellow, which saw him go on to finish the campaign with four goals from his 24 appearances, the 21-year-old returned to Ewood Park a more knowledgeable and wary defender. Following his return, Carter linked up with the first-team, featuring in all of Rovers’ pre-season games, as well as all of their competitive games to this point. Since the start of the campaign, the centre-back has started two fixtures – the defeat against Morecambe and the victory at Nottingham Forest – and particularly caught the eye at the City Ground, as he showed his defensive quality, despite playing slightly out of position at right-back as well as his attacking instinct as his endeavour to keep the ball alive following a set-piece helped Rovers secure the winner, courtesy of Darragh Lenihan’s header.
Once he had signed on the dotted line, a joyous Carter spoke to RoversTV and reflected on his new deal:
“I’m delighted to stay here and now’s the time for me to kick on again and to continue improving, I did well at Burton, proved I can handle the physicality in League One and now I feel I can do the same at Championship level.
“I feel I’ve done well in the first few games of the season, but there’s still much more to come from me. I want this form to be the regular level of performance throughout this season and beyond. It was a big pre-season for me, I’ve done well since and I’m hopeful of getting more games in to help the team as much as I can and to improve every day.”
