Grame Murty has praised Ahmed Abdullahi's progress after the striker scored a hat trick for Sunderland's under-21s last night, making it four goals in his last two games. After their resounding 7-0 win, the under-21s coach also spoke about the platform given to the young Black Cats to make themselves known and progress up the age ranks up to the first team. It is also worth noting that Alan Browne played 45 minutes as part of his recovery from a leg fracture, he was good on the ball and didn't look rusty.
HAPPY WITH 7-0?
“Very. We put a little bit of pressure on (the players) to make sure we qualified and make sure they understood that we wanted to progress. I thought they were magnificent in the way they approached the game. The first 20 minutes, I think the sharpness of our play, the way we moved the ball, their interactions with one another, was really good. That set a good foundation for the performance.”
DEVELOPING THE TEAM
“I thought we showed some real good development criteria to show that the players have gotten better and their understanding is better. For example playing off one or two touch, Rhys Walsh coming off the side, young Finn Geragusian understanding what we’re trying to do. He won’t get a lot of the plaudits but Oli Bainbridge changing position and playing as the left sided centre back from his usual left back slot, still understanding what we’re trying to do and integrating into that role and contributing to the performance. Overall I challenged them to put in a 90 minute performance and I think we were quite close to it.”
ABDULLAHI LOOKS SHARP
“He looks a lot sharper and a lot fitter. He looks more like I think he would like to look. He said he was going to get a hat trick. He said he was going to be the real spearhead point of what we’re doing. I think it’s really good for our young players to see that when you’re playing as a nine, you’re going to be judged on scoring goals and looking sharp. I think he’s looking sharper, so credit to him and hopefully that gives him the positive reinforcement. Sometimes when you’re on that rehab trail you can’t really see that light at the end of the tunnel but to feel sharp, to feel strong, to get that reward of goals as a forward player is a really good boost of confidence. He looked much more complete that he has done previously.”
MIX OF EXPERIENCE
“(The young lads) get the opportunity to play with Ahmed, and also with Alan Browne in midfield. We have a nice broad range of experience for our younger players. But as we always say to them, we’re really keen to push them on into the next challenge. If we think the challenge is going to be there for them, we really wanted to reward that. So, Aaron Chung played well at the weekend for the U18s - alright then, let’s see what you can do at the next level. He could have had a hat trick himself coming off the bench."
NOTICED BY ALL STAFF
"We want to make sure they understand that with the hard work they do, the challenges they face every day, they’re being noticed. They’re not just being noticed by their own age group coach, they’re being noticed up an age group, by the head of coaching and the academy manager, by Kristjaan (Speakman) and they’re being noticed by the first team staff. We need to reinforce that and give them a platform to go and perform. When you give them that platform I think it’s really gratifying as a coach when they put in a performance like they did.”
