There was plenty to celebrate for our young strike duo in the aftermath of yesterday’s emphatic comeback.
As well as registering our first home league win of the season, Academy graduate Aron Sasu made his first full league appearance, and Ali Al-Hamadi made it four goals in his last two appearances with his first professional hat trick - to see off Tranmere 4-1.
“I want to try and stay in the team now, that’s the aim,” said Aron, after impressing on the wing. “Hopefully I can get some goals and assists on the board too. If I perform on the pitch and in training, the opportunities will be there for me.
“The manager tells me what he expects from me. He tells me that if I’m working hard, training hard and coming on and making an impact that there will be opportunities and that’s all you can ask for. He gave me a start today and now, hopefully, I’ve given him a tough decision to make. That’s what we want to do - make it difficult for him, because everyone has a right to play.”
Having scored ten goals for us last season, since his arrival in January, Ali followed up his first of the season at Walsall last weekend with another three on this occasion.
“I’m over the moon with scoring my first league hat trick,” said Ali. “It’s so good to get a win at home in front of our fans. I think we could have been even better than that, but it was a performance for our fans to go home happy about.
“I don’t change anything about my routine, in the way I work throughout the week. Whether you’re scoring goals or not - you need to stick to the plan, stick to the process and at some point it’ll pay off.”
“Ali has been immense,” said Aron. “He’s been working hard in training and with these three goals it’s put him in a great place and hopefully there’s more to come from him.”
“What a talent he is,” said Ali of Aron. “I thought he was unreal today - they just couldnt live with him. He’s been doing that in training, raring to go, and he deserved his chance. He’s done no harm in probably giving the gaffer another selection headache!”
Both players also hailed skipper Jake Reeves, following his return last weekend at Walsall, as we made it back-to-back wins.
“Having Reevesy and experienced lads in the team this year has made a difference,” said Ali. “Last year we crumbled a bit, but now we’ve got experienced heads on the pitch that keep us calm. He’s been unreal and I’m sure the fans appreciate what he does on the pitch, but just talking to us young lads keeps us level-headed.”
“Both Jake Reeves and Armani Little coached me through my first league start,” said Aron. “They gave me that reassurance and so too did Jack Currie just behind me. It was so important for me, especially playing out wide.”
Attention now turns to a busy October, starting with a trip to Harrogate Town on Tuesday night, following a two-all draw there last season.
“We’ve got a tough week now with two away games,” said Ali. “As we get closer to Christmas, we know how congested that fixture list gets, so everyone will need to play a part if we want to do something this season. The standard is so high in training though, that it’s a shame only eleven can start!"
“We need to extend this winning streak now,” said Aron. “We need to put three, four, five together - starting from this week. We’ve got these two away games and an opportunity to push on and get some more wins.”
Photos: Ian Stephen (Pro Sports Images).