Striker Sean Maguire bagged his first goal for the Blues at Stevenage on Saturday and it was a product of good movement followed by a calm head as he drew the keeper from a Jack Armer through ball prior to picking his spot.
“The first goal is always the hardest and he’s got that now,” manager Paul Simpson said. “I thought he was going to lob it, but it got stuck under his feet. The pitch was quite dry, it made the ball drag a little bit, but I was delighted to see it go in.
“He did really well, it was a brilliant run. We knew the way Stevenage play they were going to have quite a high line, we talked about maybe not just doing it in one pass but trying to get that extra pass to drag them out and clip it in there.
“The goal came from one ball over the top, Sean showed his nouse to be in the right area, and his pace to get away. I thought he’d just lost that chance, but thankfully he squeezed it in. Hopefully that’s the start of a flow of goals for him.”
Up front alongside United’s first goalscorer on the day was JJ Kayode, who made his first start league start of his current spell.
“You can see why Stevenage wanted to bring him into the club as well, because he makes it difficult for people,” he told us. “He’s their type of player because he backs in and makes it difficult for defenders to head.
“That’s why it was difficult for Mellish, Hunts, Sam Lavelle, because nothing’s a free header. JJ does that as well. He caused problems.
“I think there’s still a lot more to come from him, he’s still finding his feet and fitness. The challenge for us is to make sure we keep him fit, get him even fitter, and I’m sure we’ll see even more from him if we do that.
“That’s the same with our other forward options. Joe Garner is coming on and causing problems, and Terry Ablade caused problems. We’ve seen that Sean is getting stronger, so things are coming along at the same time as knowing there are areas we need to improve.”
