City boss Michael Skubala was full of praise for loanee Justin Obikwu after his impressive outing against Bradford City in midweek.
The striker caught the eye with an all-action display, despite us drawing our third blank in four days. On loan from Coventry City, he was making his first start in League One, and while he didn’t add to his two goals, he did give the forward line a certain energy.
“We’ve seen moments of Justin since he’s been in,” Michael said in his pre-Salford City press conference. “He’s took a bit of time to get going with his international duty and being available or not available or coming back on a Friday, not quite ready.
“We thought we’d give him a go up there, and I thought he did well.”
With City having one goal in 390 minutes of football, the focus will be on the strikers, and Obikwu got the nod over Freddie Draper. That underlines the depth in the current squad, something Michael was quick to reflect on.
“He’s got loads to learn, he’s still a young lad but he adds again to that front-line decision and who we could play out there.
“We’ve got Collo, we’ve got Freddie, we’ve got Justin, we’ve got Rob Street. We’ve got a good variance of the number nines but you know someone needs to make a real big claim for it, score a few goals and get on top of it.
“They’ve all got different profiles, so they can all play in a different way, which I think is exciting. Away from home at Bradford, I thought Justin did very well at times on his own and stretching the line, and getting in behind them, which was good to see.”
Who leads the line tomorrow against Salford will be interesting, with my predicted starting XI suggesting Rob Street in the nine, with Ben House, Freddie Draper and Erik Ring the three in behind.
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