Mark Robins emerged from the 4-1 victory over Leyton Orient full of praise for frontman Tom Hopper.
The frontman added two more goals to his already impressive start of four goals in four for the Iron.Talking on The Iron Player after the superb win in North East London, Robins spoke about the excelling Hopper, who managed to shrug off a first half injury to star in the second half of the game.
Robins said: “He gets knocks every game because of the way he plays.
"He’s been terrific, I thought he caused their centre-halves no end of problems and he learnt a lot from the game on Tuesday night, and this result makes that result against MK Dons look like a really good one.
"Coming out from that game and into a different one away from home you could see in Tom that after a couple of goals it has settled him down.
"He’s got a couple of goals again and managed to get on the score sheet which has given him that hunger and desire to score more, and not only scoring, but scoring and winning the game is fantastic.”
With Tom Hopper’s loan due to expire within the next week, Mark Robins confirmed to the press that the Leicester City loanee will remain at Glanford Park for the rest of the campaign.
Robins stated: “We’ve agreed that he’s going to stay for the rest of the season, and that’ll be done as soon as he signs the paperwork on Monday.
"We are really, really grateful, I spoke to Nigel Pearson yesterday and I’m really grateful he’s let us keep a hold of him because he’s highly regarded at Leicester, and Nigel and Craig Shakespeare have been fantastic.”
On Friday night the Iron confirmed the signing of striker Kevin van Veen from FC Oss, but despite the eagerly awaited debut of the Dutchman, Robins was never in doubt that Hopper would become surplus to requirements with the arrival of van Veen.
On chances of extending Hopper’s loan, Robins said: “There was no doubt at all, no.
"They are different people and different players and we’ve got games coming thick and fast and we are going to need a big squad.
"Kevin is coming back on Monday. We need to make sure we have international clearance and all that stuff is in place, but he’ll be training with us from Tuesday.”
Another Friday signing was the confirmation of a season-long loan deal for Premier League Champions Manchester City midfielder George Evans, who impressed for the Citizens during a warm weather friendly in Abu Dhabi last week against Hamburg.
On the signing of Evans, Robins said: “We have George Evans coming in as well and he’ll give us something slightly different as well, and in certain games we are going to need somebody different like him.
"I’ve not seen him train yet as he travelled down with his Dad last night, as his Dad drove him down and brought him in so he’s not trained yet but he’s had a little bit of a taste today which I thought was great and we’ll have a good look at him next week after a full week’s training.
"I picked the phone up, asked the question, and we got him.
"We were looking for another midfield player with Bishop close to a two game suspension through bookings and we’ll be missing him at some point, that being said he’s been brilliant lately, although I have told him if he gets suspended he’ll get a fine and as tight as he is he’ll have listened today!
"We need as many players fit and firing as we possibly can do. I know Sean McAllister and I know I can rely on him, I just wanted to give George a little bit of a taster and bring him on today.”
A final line came regarding Chelsea defender Alex Davey, who was absent from the squad at the Matchroom Stadium on Saturday, but Robins confirmed the centre-half missed out through injury.
Robins said: “Alex has just came back after an assessment at Chelsea after jarring his back on Thursday. We hope he is doing okay, and we are hoping to get him back in the building early next week.”
See much more from Mark Robins, Gary McSheffrey and Liam O'Neil on The Iron Player.