David Syers will know his City fate by the end of the week.

The 22-year-old midfielder has been on trial at Valley Parade throughout the summer and did his chances of a permanent deal no harm with a goal-scoring appearance in Tuesday’s Carling Cup win against Nottingham Forest.

An ankle injury suffered in last month’s pre-season friendly at Canvey Island initially seemed to have scuppered Syers’ hopes of an extended stay but Peter Taylor has been determined to give him a fair crack of the whip.

City’s boss signed the former Farsley and Harrogate player on non-contract terms prior to the Forest game and was rewarded with an all-action performance.

But Syers is jostling for position in an already crowded engine room, with Michael Flynn expected back from injury soon to further bolster numbers.

“We said we’d make a decision by the end of the week but he hasn’t done himself any harm tonight,” said Taylor after the extra-time win against Forest.

“He’s full of energy, he gets about, he makes those forward runs and he got a really important goal for us.

“He’s been with us through all pre-season. He turned his ankle over in his first pre-season friendly, so that put him back a couple of weeks.

“But at the end of last week I said I wanted to look at him for one more week and he hasn’t done anything wrong, to be fair.”

Another summer arrival also caught Taylor’s eye against Forest.

Jake Speight suffered a disrupted start to his City career after he was convicted of assault and initially jailed for 12 weeks, before the sentence was overturned on appeal.

But the £25,000 signing made a lively cameo as a late substitute against Shrewsbury last week and impressed throughout the full 120 minutes against Forest.

Taylor said: “He does things that you’re not sure he’s going to do. Once he gets the ball into his feet and he can get his back into defenders, he’s quite a handful.

“I thought he got fouled quite a lot, to be honest, and there were a couple he never got.

“He’s extremely determined to be a success here and he’s actually working too hard at times. Once he gets the ball he just needs to calm down and he’ll be fine.”