Mark Robins was full of praise for striker Paddy Madden after his hat-trick in the 4-0 away pre-season win at Hartlepool.
He said: “That performance from Paddy was as good as I’ve ever seen.“He was fantastic and every decision he made was the right one. He’s fed people, created space for himself and worked his socks off. He covers every blade of grass in every game anyway, but he did it with a load of quality.
“His three goals were deserved and some of the balls into the box from Jordan Clarke, Scott Wiseman and Scott Laird from the right and left-hand-sides respectively we haven’t had in the past. It’s really important for us. Tom Hopper has almost scored a couple of goals and one of them has led to Paddy’s hat-trick, with another opportunity for Kevin van Veen later in the game.
“There’s a lot of food for thought and a lot of good performances from the game. We’re happy with that, we’ll move on and try and build on that.”
One absentee from the side was goalkeeper Luke Daniels, giving Joe Anyon the chance to play his second set of ninety minutes successively after playing the entirety of the Middlesbrough match in Marbella. Mark gave fans an update on his situation – along with Hakeeb Adelakun.
The United boss also revealed that Jamie Ness’ withdrawal against Hartlepool United was purely precautionary, with the midfielder set to resume training.
“He has been (carrying a knock) since last week,” he continued.
“He picked up a knock or a bit of a groin strain, but he should be back in training before the Bolton game.
“We took Jamie Ness off just as a precaution, but he should be okay. I’m pleased with the work-out because Hartlepool are a decent side.
“I spoke to the physiotherapists regarding Hakeeb (Adelakun) and he did some running on Monday and Tuesday, with there being no adverse reactions, so he could be for the start of the season.
“He’s got to get some work into him now and there’s only so much he can do, so hopefully he can get fit pretty quickly. It’s really tough to catch up because of the volume of work. You start to play catch-up because you can’t get the work into them because the games start to come thick and fast.
“That’s unless you take the player completely out of it and get the player on the programme that the rest of them have done during pre-season, which is difficult to do and you can’t replicate it.
“It’s tough for him, but it’ll be good to have him back fit.”