Carabao Cup hero David McGoldrick has heaped praise on Ipswich Town’s young guns and hopes to see them develop as the season progresses.
Flynn Downes, 18, and Tristan Nydam, 17, shone in the centre of Town’s midfield during the 2-0 cup win at League Two Luton on Tuesday night.
Another youngster, Bersant Celina, 20, also impressed, setting up McGoldrick for the first of his two goals at Kenilworth and adding pace and trickery to the Blues’ frontline.
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McGoldrick, who will be hoping his two-goal haul at Luton is enough to get him the nod at Barnsley in the Championship on Saturday, said of Downes and Nydam: “They were very good, they’ve come through today.
“It’s a tough place to come, Luton. I’ve been here when I was young and it was very hard, but they stood up like men, that’s the main thing, and they had quality.
“Flynn was fantastic and so was Tristan, so it was fantastic to see them get a game and hopefully they’ll get more.”
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As for Celina, the Kosovo international was making his Town debut after signing on a season-long loan from Manchester City and formed a telepathic relationship with McGoldrick, after a quiet opening half hour.
“Myself and Bersant were told we were going to play up front together on Saturday and we’ve been doing a lot of work together,” McGoldrick added.
“Bersant’s a clever player. He likes to drop to deep, I like to drop deep as well but I knew he was more of a ‘midfield’ striker so I let him drop deep more and you could see his quality with the ball that he gave me for the goal in the first half. He’s got that about him.
“We’ve missed that in certain seasons, so he’ll be a great addition to our team.”
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The duo were joined by another debutant, Martyn Waghorn, who appeared as a substitute at Luton and will be battling for a place in attack, with opening day scorer Joe Garner and Freddie Sears also at McCarthy’s disposal.
It is a nice selection headache for McCarthy and McGoldrick does not know who will play at Oakwell.
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He said: “You’ll have to ask the big man about that! We won Saturday so I’m not expecting to go straight back in the team. I’m old enough and wise enough to know that we won and why would he change the team?
“I’m fighting a cause, I’ll always fight my cause to play and I’m happy to give him a headache.”
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