By Matt Cecil

Simon Church became the first loan signing of the Peter Taylor generation at Adams Park when he agreed to join the club on a one-month loan deal from Reading at the weekend, and wwfc.com has scoured the worldwide web to bring you more information about the 19-year-old striker.

As was reported when the news broke, Church is a product of Wycombe's own Centre of Excellence, having been born in the town and joined the youth set-up at an early age. At the time, Church was in the age group above current Blues youngsters Darrell Ellams and Scott Shulton and two years above Matt Phillips, David Pearce and the Reading twins, David and James.

Church clearly showed promise as a teenager as Championship side Reading swooped to take him to the Royals' academy while fellow Blues youngsters Steve Brown and Scott Davies, who were in the age group above Church, also made the switch to the Madejski Stadium.

Simon continued to make progress for the Royals and regularly featured alongside current Wanderers keeper Jamie Young and former loanee Scott Golbourne in the reserve team, appearing in a 2-1 win against a Wycombe team containing Robbie Rice in March 2006.

The following year, Church was handed his first professional contract with Reading after helping the club win the double at reserve-team level, and was rewarded with his first call-up to the Wales Under-21 squad without ever having made a senior appearance in club football.

Qualifying for Wales through his grandad, Church was handed his debut for the Under-21s in a thrilling 4-3 win over Sweden in August 2007 and was named on the bench for Reading's Carling Cup trip to Swansea City the following week before scoring a brace in the reserves' 6-0 win over Birmingham.

The youngster made a number of appearances for the second string at the beginning of the 2007/08 before joining Crewe Alexandra on loan in October, with Crewe's technical director Dario Gradi saying: "He will make a difference to us and should improve us. I spoke to (Reading boss) Steve Coppell and he was very complimentary about the lad. He said he has even surprised him by his progress, especially over the last couple of months where he has been outstanding."

It didn't take long for Church to make an impact, supplying both goals for Ryan Lowe in a 2-0 win on his Crewe debut, and Gradi told the press: "Simon worked very hard and led the line well enough. He's got a bit of size and is stronger than you would think - he won a number of flick-ons and was a mobile target for us."

Things were to get better for Church as he bagged his first professional goal in a 2-2 draw at Cheltenham the following week, prompting manager Steve Holland to say: "Simon has definitely given us something. He is full of energy and gives his all. We've been talking about him being a similar player to Rob Hulse in that he is whole-hearted and likes to run around a lot."

The young forward remained a regular in Crewe's starting line-up and continued his fine form for his country, winning a penalty against France in November, but found it hard to add to his goal tally at Crewe after extending his loan until January. Nevertheless, Gradi was still impressed with his efforts:

"Simon has been a great asset to us and we all think he is going to be a good player. He is still learning the game and you have to remember that he is still only 18 years old."

At the end of January, Church returned to the Madejski Stadium with a glowing endorsement from Steve Holland, who said: "He was a terrific lad to work with and he is one we will certainly keep an eye on."

The next day, the striker joined Yeovil Town on another loan deal having scored his second goal in four caps for the Welsh Under-21 team that week, and followed it up with another strike in the 4-0 win at Malta early in February.

Simon played six times in League Two for the Glovers without scoring but it was on the international stage where he was really showing his talents, scoring in a 2-1 win over Bosnia in a UEFA qualifying match, before returning to Reading after his loan spell in the summer and featuring for Wales against England in a 2-0 defeat.

Church then scored in pre-season friendlies against Millwall, Basingstoke and Maidenhead and was involved in Wales' Under-21 defeat to Romania on Wednesday before watching Wycombe beat Lincoln City 1-0 on Saturday on the day that he signed the deal which will see him join Peter Taylor's side for a month.

The 19-year-old will officially join on Friday, which means he will be available for the Blues' trip to Chesterfield next weekend - click here for ticket news.

Everyone at Wycombe Wanderers would like to welcome Simon to Adams Park and wish him all the best for his time with the club.

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