Reading Under-21 boss Noel Hunt believes Jahmari Clarke still has a way to go before challenging for Paul Ince's first team.

Clarke, still only 19, burst onto the scene under Veljko Paunovic and scored twice against Birmingham City in a 2-1 win at St Andrews last season.

Playing just 22 minutes of first team football for the club since, and never being involved in a squad under Ince, he returned to Hunt's youth side before joining Woking on loan last month.

Scoring for the Cardinals with only his second touch, there have been calls from some supporters to see the teenager involved in the squad, however Royals legend Hunt feels he is still a way off.

"He's not ready," he stated. "He will tell you that himself. He still has to work on his hold-up play. You need to be 90 per cent and above reliable when the ball comes up- it has to stick. If you haven’t got that, we can’t get a foothold in the game. Workrate- you need to be covering 11-12k a match as a number nine. Until he gets to these levels in training and whatnot, it’s hard."

Taking over from Mehmet Ali last season, former Royals striker Hunt lead the youth side to Berks and Bucks Cup success and has them challenging for the play-offs in the league.

Clarke, along with felow forwards David Nyarko and Nahum Melvin-Lambert, have all enjoyed loan spells into the non-league game, something for 2012 Championship winner feels strongly about.

"The likes of Kelvin [Ehibhatiomhan], Jahmari and Nahum, who are six foot plus, you need loans. You need to get bumped, the hands-on approach, and find your way.

"For forwards and wide players, we need to get them out and get that level of consistency and performance. He just needs to keep working hard at his game, his fitness, heading the ball and hold-up play. The more you do it, the more familiar it becomes."

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Formerly a coach at Swindon Town, Hunt made comparisons with Luton Town forward Elijah Adebayo and Clarke.

"We had a boy at Swindon, Adebayo, he’s at Luton now. He was very like Kelvin E, similar size and stature. I think Kelvin E has more than him in terms of work rate and heading ability, but he got two or three goals from the start of the season, went back to Fulham before a loan at Walsall, got seven or eight the next season and went back to Walsall before getting loads of goals because he had two-and-a-half seasons of league football."