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McCarthy Surprised But Delighted By Winning Strike - Ipswich Town News

Boss Mick McCarthy was pleasantly surprised by young left-back David October’s stunning winning goal in the Blues’ 2-1 friendly win at Gillingham. The 18-year-old netted in injury time to keep up Town’s 100% record in pre-season.

The Blues manager said: "I wasn’t the way I was expecting [it to end], but I was delighted. I think we deserved to win the game. We had plenty of chances, their keeper made some good saves.

"But it wasn’t quite what I expected, Rocco with an unbelievable technical right-foot volley. A fabulous finish.”

McCarthy says trialist Titus Bramble only joined up with the squad on Monday having been at West Ham: "He’s obviously interested in coming or he wouldn’t be here and likewise I’m interested taking him or I wouldn’t have him here.

"He trained yesterday and played today, that’s all. He’s Titus Bramble, he did what he had to do tonight. It’s early days.”

McCarthy said he was pleased with the two other trialists, Tottenham’s Bongani Khumalo and former Manchester United man Frederic Veseli: "I thought he was excellent, Bongani. I was delighted with him, really, really pleased, as I was with Veseli.

"I think he’s got a bit of quality about him. I was pleased with all the lads who came on trial and trained and played. We’ll see, we’ll see how they get on.”

The Town manager confirmed that the Blues had ended their interest in ex-Southampton defender Dan Seaborne, who was in action for Yeovil this evening: "He had other options as well, so that’s just the way it is. Not all of them work out.”

Regarding Aaron Cresswell, who missed the game with a thigh injury, McCarthy says he should be involved at Barnet on Saturday: "It’s not serious, I’d hope he’ll play on Saturday, if he can get in after a right-footed finish like that!”

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