Wolves U21 boss James Collins: Nathan Fraser is a dream to work with

He remains in the first team picture and after his thunderous goal against Notts County in the EFL Trophy group stage this week, Collins has nothing but praise for the talented forward.

Collins told the Express & Star: "He's a dream, the boy's a dream!

"When you're doing a job like ours in development you get a lot of young, talented boys and a lot of them slip through the net and don't quite know how hard you have to work. They know they have talent but don't quite know how hard they have to work.

"This boy was never a superstar as a kid. When I arrived he was a workman-like centre-forward that worked hard. That was it – and that's not being disrespectful to him.

"But every day he works so, so hard to improve – and I mean every day. I've never seen anyone work like that.

"I used to say it about Hodgey (Joe Hodge), but I have to say Nath might have surpassed him.

"In my job, it's a great message to be able to tell the other boys 'look at the ones that are getting through and getting first team opportunities'. They're the ones that work the hardest.

"When he got in (for the chance against Notts County), I thought 'goal'. 12 months ago, if he'd have got in there, I'd have thought 'maybe'. That's his improvement and it comes with practice, it isn't luck and he's reaping the rewards.

"Now he has to keep going because it's hard to get into a Premier League first team and he might still be a bit off that yet, but loads of clubs wanted to take him on loan in the last window and the gaffer decided to keep him around.

"Hopefully he'll get some minutes here and there, and some experience around the first team players. No-one deserves it more than him, he's working his socks off."

Owen Hesketh opened the scoring for the under-21s on Tuesday night, before Fraser notched the second in a 2-1 win.

Notts County's goal came late in added time after a prolonged spell of pressure but despite that, Collins was delighted with how his side faced the challenge of the League Two side.

He added: "We spoke about it in the week, 23 per cent of under-21 teams win their games in this competition. That's one in four and the results show that over three or four seasons, they're hard games for under-21s to play in.

"We know that and hopefully set our lads up to have a real go and try and see if we can buck that trend a little bit.

"Our record is something like 46 (per cent), which I'm quite proud of, because it's such a hard competition for young players to play in. That's why we're in it.

"It's disappointing to concede a goal at the end but I think they deserved the goal. They had the majority of possession in the game. Notts County are a club going places, they play some good football and it makes our result even sweeter.

"It's good to see the boys stand-up to pressure. Some of them out there haven't done that in the past, and they'll admit that. At 15, 16 or 17-years-old they found pressure like that hard.

"The back four stood-up to it. I know they conceded at the death but they put in headers, clearances, blocks. The midfield worked their socks off all game too – I was delighted with the effort.

"I'd like us to do a little bit better on the ball. If they want to be Premier League footballers they have to be able to play out, and we did that for little spells but not well enough.

"But I have to be delighted with a result like that in this competition. The two goals were magnificent and Premier League quality."

Wolves face Derby and Lincoln in the remaining Group G games, as they target a place in the knock-out stages.

"We're not getting above our station, but the tournament ends at Wembley," Collins said.

"I've never played at Wembley but been there with my old club and it was one of the best days of my career.

"We're not saying we're going to get to Wembley, but if you win your games and get out of the group, who knows.

"The experience the lads get to play against League opposition is crucial, because that's probably where most of them will make their first step into adult football.

"The big doubt for League clubs is whether these young boys can stand-up to it, and this showed they can, which hopefully when we get to January might mean one or two get loan opportunities, if they're not involved with the gaffer at our place."