West Brom youngster Tom Fellows receives rave review as young flyer backed to go far
Tom Fellows has buzzed on to the Albion first-team scene with an insatiable appetite to succeed and thrilling ability to match.
Albion youngster Fellows, 20, a throwback, chalk-on-the-boots winger, found himself in need of an injection of experience in the summer of 2022. That's when Kevin Betsy, manager of Crawley Town with a big background in academy football and reputation as a talent-spotter, came calling.
"Tom is an exciting attacking player that brings quality to our squad. He is highly thought of by West Brom," Betsy said at the time of Fellows' loan capture.
The speedy winger joined Albion's academy at under-10 level and wasn't exactly an unknown when departing for West Sussex. He was involved on a handful of occasions under Valerien Ismael as a raw teen, totalling four Championship appearances – one a start, in January 2022 against Cardiff.
But it became clear, as often the case with youth players, Fellows needed a bridge between under-21s football and regular Baggies senior action. Broadfield Stadium, home of the former non-league Red Devils, was – with all due respect – an unglamorous League Two option, but Fellows rolled his sleeves up and made the most of it.
"I absolutely love the boy, honestly," says Darren Byfield, Fellows' assistant coach and briefly interim boss at Crawley, now back with Walsall.
"He didn't get the goal that he wanted and he had a lot of chances. As a young boy, he missed chances and when you miss chances the goal starts to look like that (smaller and smaller), like a matchbox, when you're scoring goals it's like the width of the pitch.
"But let's talk about his game...unbelievable. He is a get-off-your-seat kind of guy. When he gets the ball I was like 'go on, Tom'.
"He dribbles and drives, with a great attitude to develop, a great attitude to work, just a wonderful boy.
"Off the pitch, his mannerisms, his attitude, I really, really liked Tom Fellows and think he will go on to be a very good footballer."
It was a season of real turmoil at Crawley. From the outside the club looked like a basket-case. Betsy left in October, caretaker Lewis Young lasted a couple of months, Matthew Etherington barely a month, Byfield himself was briefly an interim – where he was chaotically joined in the dugout by US co-owner Preston Johnson – before current boss Scott Lindsey's appointment in January.
