Paul Simpson was delighted with Daniel Adu-Adjei’s goalscoring debut after a “whirlwind” start with Carlisle United.
The AFC Bournemouth loan striker took just 25 minutes to open his Blues account with the first goal against Stockport County.
Adu-Adjei had also missed two great earlier chances by then as he looked to make an immediate impact in United’s front line.
His 45-minute showing in the 2-1 pre-season victory at Brunton Park offered plenty of promise and manager Simpson was pleased with the 19-year-old’s United bow.
“I know it'll give him a real boost,” said Simpson.
“The goal was a really good goal, and it was probably the most difficult of the three chances he had.
“But [there was encouragement] with the earlier ones, in terms of the awareness to get in off Charlie Wyke's flick, and the awareness from when Cameron Harper smashed it across the box and he [Adu-Adjei] gets his body in there.
“Strikers have to be in there and if he gets there, he'll get goals.
“You don't score goals at any level [without having that]. His goals have all come in development football so far, but he's got that eye for a goal.
“I thought he showed he was a real threat with his running power, which is something that we've needed.
“He gives us another string and I'm really pleased with what I've seen so far.”
Adu-Adjei, whose half-time replacement Luke Armstrong hit Carlisle’s winner against Stockport, joined United on a season-long loan on Thursday.
It had been a hectic start to life for the young frontman, Simpson added.
“He's had a really strong pre-season with the Bournemouth first team over in LA, and got himself a goal over there in some of the minutes that he had," Carlisle's manager said.
“Since then it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. He's a young kid who has driven up from Bournemouth on Thursday, had a medical, we got him in the accommodation that he's going to be staying in and then he was thrown into training.
“Before he even trained, I put the team [for Saturday] up in the team meeting – he was playing and he didn't know that.
“It's probably all a bit of a shock, but I actually just felt it was really important to throw him into it straight away because I needed him to get some minutes, to get that intensity.
“I also wanted him to get a feel of what it can be like playing at Brunton Park as well.
“I'm sure he enjoyed it because he had a smile on his face when I took him off at half-time.”
Simpson believes Adu-Adjei can offer “something different” from United’s other centre-forward options.
“Luke will get confidence from getting his goal as well,” added Simpson of Armstrong’s second-half strike.
Carlisle produced a much more positive performance in their final pre-season game, after the previous disappointing displays against Rochdale and Gateshead.
Simpson was pleased with plenty of what he saw, whilst acknowledging there is still room for improvement.
“It was important for confidence to get a couple of goals,” he said.
“It would have been even better to have got a clean sheet, but we didn't get that.
“I thought it was more about the performance, and the way we competed and the way we passed the ball that gave us a real lift.
“I hope everybody can see that there's some positive signs there, but everybody also has to see that we've still got things we need to improve on, and that will hopefully keep happening as the season goes on.”
United set a strong early tone with how they pressed League One new boys Stockport in the visitors’ half.
The Blues wing-backs, Archie Davies and Cameron Harper, also contributed well with some positive runs and dangerous crosses.
“We've slightly tweaked what we've been doing [in terms of the press], and I thought we were better,” said Simpson.
“We made [Stockport’s] play a little bit more predictable by the way that we went about it.
“There were lots of pleasing things. I was pleased with the way we passed the ball. I was pleased with the threat we showed with Charlie and Dan [up front].
“I thought the two wing-backs put some real good deliveries into the box. And also the way we actually ringed the edge of the box, when things were coming back out – we managed to get that second wave of attack going.
“I just think there was a bit more intensity and a bit more aggression about the way we played.”
It was a confidence-building way to sign off from their pre-season fixtures ahead of next weekend’s League Two opener at Gillingham.
“The players will certainly take something from this,” Simpson said.
“It's a pre-season game and I'm pleased we've got a result but it doesn't give us any points. We've got to keep building on it.”
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