Manager Keith Hill says offering Johny Diba his first professional contract is reward for his hard work.
The 17-year-old put pen to paper on a deal, which will see him contracted to the club until the summer of 2017, on Tuesday.
“We know Johny and we’ve worked hard with him, particularly Stevie Collis,” said Hill.
“He probably wasn’t ready [to make the step up to the first team in the summer], but I said no, he’s going to be part of our first team squad right from the get go, right from the start of the season, and we’re going to turn him into what we need him to be. And to be fair to Johny he has stuck to task and Stevie has been brilliant with him - he has learnt so much in this first six months.
“It’s reward for Johny that we’ve offered him the contract and it’s also reward for the plan that we had for him as well. That’s just the first part of my plan and he’ll go on to play a lot of games for the first team in my opinion.”