John Schofield said he was able to draw a lot of positives from his Rovers Development squad following a win away at Grimsby Town in their first game of the Central League North campaign.
Goals from Alex Kiwomya, Alfie Beestin and Paul Taylor sealed the win for Schofield’s side, and he began by praising the attitude of the Rovers front three.
“Forward players want to score goals, they’ll say it’s all about the forward play and the creating chances, but they want to find the back of the net, and all three of them managed to do just that here which is great,” he said.
“They’re all going to be a lot happier that they’ve scored, and it’ll do a lot for their confidence too, they’re in a better place now, and they’ve also got minutes under their belt which ultimately is the main goal.
“Not just those three but all of the first team lads that featured carried themselves really well, they all need to work together and get the minutes under their belts, and they should all walk in to training very happy with what they’ve done.”
Tuesday’s game with the Mariners saw Will Longbottom get his first minutes of the season after missing the whole of the pre-season schedule through injury, and Schofield was quick to single out both him and skipper Cody Prior after the game after impressive performances from the pair.
“I’m really pleased for Will and I thought he was excellent when he came on, he created the opportunity for Alfie to score the second goal, and his tracking back was brilliant too, he ran the full length of the pitch after having a pass intercepted to get back and block the ball,” he added.
“He’s shown great endeavour to get up and down, he was great in possession and without the ball too, and now I really hope he can continue to build on that because he really was superb when he came on.
“Cody was captain all last year and he was probably the most consistent player throughout the game, he’s happy to step up to the plate and make a decision, if he makes a mistake he’ll hold his hands up, he shoulders the responsibility very well and he was very impressive here.”