Derby County youngster Louie Sibley hopes that his fine form for the U23s can lead to more chances in the first-team.

The 18-year-old is highly regarded by the Rams and has already featured in Phillip Cocu's side twice this season, when he made wholesale changes for League Cup ties against Scunthorpe and Nottingham Forest.

So, the next challenge for Sibley will be to force his way into the Dutchman's plans for a Championship game and he did himself no harm by scoring a hat-trick as the development side thrashed Leeds United in the week.

Speaking to RamsTV after the 7-1 win, the midfielder explained how he hopes his good form will help him moving forward.

"For me, I just need to keep getting more goals and more assists, to keep pushing for the first-team opportunity. I want to keep playing well, keep performing, and if I keep playing as well as I can, hopefully more first-team opportunities will come my way."

[freshpress-poll ]

Since taking over in the summer Cocu has shown he isn't afraid to give youngsters a chance, with midfielder Jason Knight featuring in eight games this season.

The verdict

These are exciting times for Derby fans because it seems as though they have a really talented crop of academy players trying to break through and Sibley is one of those.

He has been making a name for himself for some time now and the hat-trick in the week just further enhanced his reputation.

You can tell from his comments that he has ambitions of breaking into Cocu's team and it will be interesting to see how close he is to the squad by the end of the season.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.