Yes he certainly deserved his goals, Connor Thomas was again very good, can certainly see why liverpool wanted him. But for me the pick of the bunch was Gael Bigirimana, just ran the midfield along with ruffels and thomas.
The second half was certainly a reason to be positive. And Gary Hoffman stood next to my dad at the game and from what he could hear Hoffman said 'atleast SISU are going to listen to us now'...so fingers crossed!
Gael was absolute
quality. Within about 5 minutes of watching him, Riochs' Essien comparison made perfect sense. He looks very similar in style to that Sunday guy we were linked with: picks the ball up deep, gives and goes, runs off the ball into space to give an option to team-mates, lots of 1-2's, incredibly quick for a centre-mid, and decent vision. Took all the corners and almost scored with dipping, curling FK and another swerving shot from wide. Looks like he has real leadership qualities too-he never stopped talking, and led the players in applauding the fans. I think he already offers more than Aron did last season. He could also play that Clingan role as he did yesterday. Looks the most exciting youth player since McSheffrey to me.
Thomas was alright, and his passes for the goals showed his potential in AT's style of play. He made the odd little error, but hey, it's a pre-season game. Jeffers seems to have grown and is much stronger than before. Could be a better option than Platt, as he has some pace. Wilson showed a couple of nice touches, but was a bit naive, and Ruffles was ok but missed an absolute sitter.
Cyrus Christie also deserves a special mention. He got forward really well and got stuck-in defensively. He was as effective at LB 2nd half as he was at RB 1st half. Big, strong and quick-he also communicated well with the other players. His barn-storming run 2nd half was one of the highlights of the match.
As for Roy O (anthem to the tune of the song that was the theme to the old Trio advert?!?)...he was great
Looked fairly similar to the guy who did ok in the odd game for Sunderland and Blackpool. And that's certainly something BSN defences won't cope with. With more experienced players around him, he'd have scored 4-5, and he looked frustrated as he made great runs into goalscoring positions but the pass didn't come in time. We went onto "O'Donovan Cam" in the 2nd half: he
constantly found space, a real live-wire in the box, and I'll say with confidence that he is our quickest player since Mifsud. He also seems to be very 2-footed, as illustrated by his 2nd goal. I said to my mate "he's gonna score here..." about 8 seconds before he buried it in the top corner. Gotta be worth a go next season, and I've said numerous times-
look at his record at Hartlepool on loan. That would have been 23-30 goals over a full season, and put him in the Austin/Mackail-Smith type brackett. He looks every bit as good as them to me!