Jimmy Quinn has released five players at the end of their contracts and will be handing the younger members of the squad their chance to shine next season.

Courtney Pitt, Mark Peters, Leo Fortune-West, Dan Chillingworth and Michael Hyem are the five players who have not been offered new deals for next season.

Pitt, Peters and Fortune-West all played in Sunday's Play-off Final defeat at Wembley, but Chillingworth and first year pro Hyem have been affected by injuries this season.

35-year-old Mark Peters joined on a free transfer in June 2005 and has made just over 100 senior appearances, combining playing with coaching duties for the last two seasons and bringing valuable experience to the side, especially in his first season as a young U's side adjusted to life in the Conference. He played the whole 90 minutes on Sunday and came closest to equalising for United when his shot was cleared off the line.

Former Chelsea trainee Courtney Pitt (26) joined on a free transfer in October 2006 and has been virtually ever-present when fit, utilised as a pacy winger to begin with but in the last two seasons mainly as a hardworking left wingback. He also played the full 90 minutes at Wembley.

Leo Fortune-West joined on a free transfer at the start of this season and won the first Blue Square 'Player of the Month' award after an excellent start to his United career. The Doncaster-based 37-year-old spent the second half of the season on loan at York City, but returned to feature in the play-off matches and was particularly impressive in the home semi-final win against Burton when he came off the bench and helped to ensure that the U's held on to their lead.

Dan Chillingworth's career began at United and he first broke into the first team in 2000, but was released along with most of the squad when the club was relegated to the Conference at the end of the 2004/05 season. He joined Rushden & Diamonds but suffered a second successive relegation to the Conference, then made a surprise return to Cambridge in January 2007 to play his part in the successful battle against another relegation. He has missed the whole of the current season with a niggling ankle injury.

Mikey Hyem joined United's youth scheme in 2006 and earned his first pro contract this time last year, going on to make six league appearances from the bench this season, but a knee cartilage operation in February brought his season to a premature end.

"These lads have all done a great job for us but this is football," explained Jimmy Quinn. "You need to release people to free some money to get other players in.

"The players we signed in January have taken up a chunk of the budget and you can't go over your budget because you get fined and docked points, so unfortunately for Courtney and Mark and the others we've had to let them go.

"We thank them for all their hard work and effort and wish them all the very best for their future."

Quinn has moved to tie up the contracts of three other players; young left-back Jordan Collins has signed a new one year deal while the club has taken up the options to extend the contracts of Stephen Reed and Ben Farrell (below) for a further year.

Darren Quinton, whose impressive early season form was cruelly interrupted by an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury in October, has been offered the chance to return in pre-season on a month-to-month deal to prove his fitness.

The rest of the senior squad is already contracted for at least next season, and includes right winger Craig Bussens who signed his first pro contract at the start of the month.

The loans of Lee McEvilly, Paul Carden and Magno Vieira ended after Sunday's match and Jimmy Quinn is unlikely to pursue his interest in the two strikers, but he would like to bring midfielder Paul Carden to the Trade Recruitment Stadium on a permanent basis.

"There might be some interest from other parties but Paul is one that I'd like to keep," Quinn confirmed. "Hopefully we'll be talking to him in the next couple of days and we'll take it from there.

"Lee McEvilly is on a lot of money and to get him to move down here I think he would just be a little bit out of our reach at the moment," he added. "He's worked hard and done well, and I think there might be some interest from other clubs, but I've decided to go another route.

"It's the same with Magno; he's done a good job for us and now he's gone back to Brazil for a few weeks, and I'll be having a look about and see if I can get a couple of strikers who are consistent in their goalscoring. That's a priority for me; I think that's the key to us having another successful season."

Stressing that he believes the time is right to look to the younger members of the squad, the manager added, "We have a lot of players signed up already for next season and beyond, and we've got a lot of young lads coming through, and it's time to push forward the youth we have here. We have the right type of experience here to help these lads develop but they won't develop unless you play them.

"That's why I've released the likes of Rhino (Peters, below) and Courtney because although we have a good budget we spent good money in the January window and we're close to that budget, so it's time to give these kids a go.

"It's the only way forward for me. You look at the game on Sunday and you think maybe one or two were a bit 'leggy' with age or whatever, and one thing about kids is they're full of running so it's time to push forward and try to develop the youth side so we're getting more of these young players in the team - much as Exeter and Aldershot have.

"Exeter on Sunday only had a couple of older experienced pros and the rest of the team was full of youngsters, and Aldershot were much the same, so that's the route I'm going and if you've got a few players with the right experience the kids will come on that much quicker."

Quinn concluded, "Already I'm very excited about the future because we've got some good youngsters coming through, and if we can just add one or two quality players along the way and hopefully a couple of consistent goalscorers for the right sort of money then that's the way forward.

"I've got one or two players in mind but good players are at a premium and everyone is looking for the same thing, so we'll have to do our homework and sell the club to them, and obviously to get decent strikers you've got to pay them good money."

Our SMS subscribers get the news FIRST through the club's official SMS alert service. No rumours or speculation, just the NEWS direct from the club - send CLUB CAMB NEWS to 88442. Alerts 25p. Subscribe and unsubscribe at any time - click here for full details.

Make Your Click Count For The U's - talk about it on the Message Board!

You are respectfully reminded that any article, as with all content on this website, unless otherwise stated, is subject to copyright © and the Official Cambridge United Website must be acknowledged as the original source including all quotes.

AT080521