HARRY Vaughan has joined non-league neighbours Radcliffe on a one-month youth loan.

The Latics starlet was accelerated through the club's youth ranks in his breakthrough year of 2021, and fast-tracked to his first professional deal under former boss Keith Curle.

But the attacking midfielder has struggled for game time this season, making just four substitute appearances in the National League.

And manager David Unsworth believes that the loan spell with the part-time Northern Premier League Premier Division side will give Vaughan the best of both worlds, with the 18-year-old continuing to train with Latics day-to-day.

"He's on the periphery and he's a young lad and young players need to go out and play games, I'm big on that," said Unsworth.

"He's still going to train with us every day and he's going to get some games.

"It's all about performance and every young player to show a level of performance. If they don't get an opportunity to do that in games they've got to do it in training, but the training is geared towards the XI that are going to be playing. You can't replicate a competitive match, that's why it's good for young players to go out on loan. The B team games are great but they're not every week.

"As long as we're controlling the training it's a great opportunity for young Harry and any other young player that we've got because there have been a lot of enquiries. We pass them on, and it's a matter for them to decide whether they want to do that or not. Some do, some don't.

"Sometimes young players don't want to go out and we've had that with a few of our young players and that's entirely up to them, of course, but they need to be playing games and we've had a lot of enquiries for a lot of our young players. It's their choice, we'd like them to go and get games and we can still control it because we'd train with them every day, and it's the best of both worlds."

And Unsworth believes that Radcliffe, managed by former Oldham striker Bobby Grant, will be a good fit, with some familiar faces, including ex-Latic Nicky Adams.

"We wouldn't be sending any young players to a set-up that we didn't know or had good contacts there. It's a great set-up," said the Oldham boss.

"It works for everybody."