Exciting Eagle Kaikai soars into Town

The 20-year-old left-sided wide man has joined Town until January 16 and is available for his debut at home to Crewe on Saturday.

Southwark-born Kaikai, who can play for Sierra Leone through his parents, netted in his only first-team appearance for the Eagles against Newcastle in a League Cup tie.

He also scored six goals in 30 games on loan at League Two Cambridge last season, including a last-minute equaliser against Shrewsbury.

Kaikai becomes boss Micky Mellon's second signing of the week after Ian Black and their third loan capture, after Liam McAlinden and Larnell Cole.

And Mellon believes the youngster will have fans at the Greenhous Meadow on the edge of their seats.

He said: "I'm delighted to get young Kaikai in. He has all the qualities we want to bring to the group - pace, power, ability and goalscoring threat and a desire to do well and keep progressing.

"We hope he'll excite the fans - he's pacy, full of energy and he'll score goals, he wants to get better.

"He's a very talented boy. He plays off that left side, he can play up front or the No 10 role, so he'll give us the options we'll need as we go along, because we like to tweak the system and the personnel in it.

"He'll give us something different, so we can do that when required and we're delighted Crystal Palace have given us one of their top young players to work with.

"He's a good kid as well who's moved up here with Larnell Cole, which is important."

Mellon revealed he has been tracking Kaikai for several years, adding: "He's someone we've admired for a long time.

"It stemmed from when my mate Ronnie Jepson was at Crystal Palace with Neil Warnock and he said 'it might be too early now, but there's a cracking young player here, keep an eye on him.'

"That was a few years ago and we did exactly that. When he went on loan to Cambridge, we watched all their games and he broke our hearts in one of them here when he scored in the last minute.

"We'll remind him of that when he gets his feet under the table! We tried to get him earlier in the season but Palace didn't want to let him out because he was around the first team at the time.

"But we've been able to do it now and we're delighted to have another exciting recruit in the building."

Kaikai can't wait to get started in his new surroundings, adding: "I'm very excited - it's a chapter I'm looking forward to a lot and I want to contribute to the team and help them as much as I can.

"I don't know too much about Shrewsbury but I'll get to know a few of the lads staying at the hotel, I'm at so I'll get to know the faces. It was an easy after talking to the manager - he sold it to me.

"They play attractive football and the system suits me, so it will benefit me a lot. It was a good first training session - I really enjoyed the intensity, and the lads made me feel welcome, which is good."

Kaikai aims to excite the fans too, adding: "I'd say my strengths are goals, creativity and just working for the team really.

"I remember playing against Shrewsbury on loan at Cambridge last season and scoring the last minute equaliser! I'm sure the Shrewsbury fans will remember that!

"It was quite a good game actually, we deserved the point."