CHARLIE'S RISE INSPIRES KEMP

DAN Kemp has admitted Swindon Town team-mate Charlie Austin's meteoric recovery from early career setbacks has given him the belief that he can rise back up the divisions himself.

- Dave Flett

The on-loan MK Dons attacker has netted 12 times this term and is on course to fulfil his ambition of becoming "one of League Two's standout performers" in 2023-24.

Kemp, 24, came through the ranks at Chelsea and West Ham with Declan Rice, right, who remains one of his best friends with the pair born just three days apart.

He also represented England at Under-19 and Under-20 level but, while Rice has become a mainstay in the senior Three Lions side, Kemp has had to assert his quality in the EFL's bottom tier having left the Hammers in 2021.

His story will resonate with Austin who, at 15, was released by Reading for being too small before dropping much further down the football pyramid, turning out in the Hellenic League and Wessex League for the likes of Kintbury Rangers, Hungerford and Poole.

Swindon gave him his first chance in the pro game five years after his Reading rejection, but it wasn't until he was 25 when he got his Premier League break with QPR and subsequently plundered 18 goals in his first campaign at that level.