Shaw’s early impact rewarded with new three-year contract at Easter Road
Hibs striker Oli Shaw has signed a new three-year deal, tying him to the Easter Road club until the summer of 2021.
The 19-year-old has emerged in recent weeks as one of the Premiership’s most promising young strikers, scoring against Celtic, Ross County and Kilmarnock in December while his effort in the Edinburgh derby which wasn’t given – assistant referee Sean Carr ruling the ball hadn’t crossed the line – became a major talking point.
Shaw’s prolific strike-rate in the SPFL Development League, where Hibs currently sit top of the table, helped over the past two seasons to persuade Neil Lennon he was ready for first-team action, and the head coach’s faith has been repaid by the youngster’s performances.
Lennon has no doubts Shaw, a product of the Edinburgh club’s youth academy, will become a force to be reckoned with in years to come. He said: “There is a maturity about his play for someone so
Oli Shaw: Bright future.
young, but a rawness as well which makes him difficult to play against.
“Oli is a real talent, that’s for sure. His performances this season, especially last month, have really impressed me. His goals have been fantastic and shown a lot of the different aspects of the talent he possesses.
“He is a good kid with a bright future ahead of him if he continues to work as hard in training and in games as he has done so far this season.”
Lennon paid tribute to the work being done by former Hibs player Eddie May, now head of academy coaching, with Shaw having been joined this season in his first-team squad by two other teenagers, defender Ryan Porteous and midfielder Fraser Murray.
He said: “To have Oli, as well as Ryan and Fraser, come into the first-team squad so seamlessly speaks volumes of the work that Eddie and the rest of the academy staff have been doing over the past few years.”
Shaw, who has made 14 first-team appearances for Hibs, his first goal coming as he stepped off the bench during the Betfred Cup semifinal against Celtic in October, said: “I’m delighted to have signed and committed my future here at Hibs. It’s a massive club with great staff and a great manager and I am looking forward to continuing working and developing here.
“My goal is to play firstteam football regularly and to hopefully continue scoring goals. I’ve had a wee sniff of it recently, so I am looking forward to getting back at it after the break.”
Meanwhile, Hibs have announced the development loan spells of New Zealand youth internationalist Andrew Blake at Edinburgh City and that of 19-year-old defender Ben Stirling at Cowdenbeath have been cancelled, with both players returning to Easter Road.