Town manager Paul Jewell says that after last week’s superb solo effort, he now wants to see more scruffy goals from Connor Wickham. The 17-year-old rounded off last week’s 3-0 home victory over Sheffield United by running from halfway inside his own half to score his second goal of the season.
Jewell said: "It was a great goal but I’d like to see him get more in those six-yard boxes, some scruffy goals. But that was a great goal he scored the other day, you can’t take that away from the lad and it was the icing on the cake of a good second half performance.
"Connor’s a special player and is going to be a special player, but he’s a long, long way from the finished article and it’s important, as I keep saying, that we don’t put too much emphasis on him.
"He’s doing a great job for the team at the moment, he’s not playing in the position where he’s going to end up playing naturally, but I had a long conversation with him and it’s another string to his bow. He’s got two goals in his last two home games and he’s doing OK.”
Wickham played 60 minutes as England’s U19s lost 1-0 to Germany in midweek and Jewell says he has received positive reports from their staff: "I’ve just been speaking to Noel Blake and he gave him a really good mention.
"His attitude was first class as he didn’t get a lot of help and was isolated at times on Tuesday. It’s all a big learning curve for him and he’s playing lots of games and learning lots of stuff.
"What I’ve said to Connor is that he’ll learn from his mistakes. Sometimes a striker knows when he’s going through a bad time what to do and what not to do. He went 18 games without a goal and now he’s got two goals in the last three games. Hopefully he can go on a nice run.”
Meanwhile, Carlos Edwards says his team-mates have a new Brazilian-inspired nickname for him since he started playing at right-back: "They call me Cafu. But I’m not Cafu, I’m cat food!”
Edwards says he is getting used to the new role, never previously having played as an out-and-out full-back over a consistent period: "I played as a right wing-back at Wrexham, but it wasn’t the same position as a right-back.
"We played three in defence and I was like a headless chicken running up and down the right-hand side. I had too much energy then, but that energy starts going over the years!
"But this is the first time I have played in a back four in consecutive games. I’ve had to learn to be more disciplined.”