Hard work on the training field is paying off for winger Kyle Edwards, according to manager Kieran McKenna.
Edwards came off the bench to score his first two Town goals during Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over Cambridge, having set-up the winner for Wes Burns in Saturday’s 3-2 win against Portsmouth, also having been a sub.
The 24-year-old signed for the Blues from West Brom in the summer of 2021, but has made only 11 league starts and 13 sub appearances having drifted out of the first team picture last season before injury curtailed his campaign prematurely. This season all six of his league appearances have been from the bench.
"I think he's a player with a clear and obvious talent with the ball at his feet to take on players, produce moments of skill and go one-vs-one, and has quality and composure on the ball and physical attributes to go with it,” McKenna said.
"It's obviously a really good skillset to start with. Of course, in football, to build your career, you have to be effective in terms of goals and assists. You have to have good numbers in the forward positions and there's a process behind getting those numbers. It doesn't just happen and it's about the areas that you get in and your decisions when you get into those areas.
"And to play in a top team, there are also demands that you have to rise to in terms of your work off the ball, both when your team has it and when the other team has it.
"Kyle has been working ever so hard in these areas to hone the talents that he has into a really effective player for the team and he's made some good steps in that direction.
"He has seen some of the fruits of his labour over the last few weeks but it's, of course, a part of continuous improvement, a continuous process to improve that Kyle Edwards is on, that Lee Evans is on, that Sone Aluko is on, that Richard Keogh is on at 36.
"You know, you have to keep trying to improve and develop your game and Kyle is one of those players who is working really hard in doing that at the moment and we hope to continue seeing him doing so.”
Having made an impression from the bench, does McKenna want to see anything different from him if he is handed his first league start of the season?
"I think it's the same with every player,” McKenna reflected. "It's about looking at what we need from different positions for the game and we pick different players and different profiles for different positions for different opponents according to how we think the game will and how they will defend certain spaces.
"Kyle is certainly putting himself in that mix. He's showing the attributes now that we know he has and he's brought them onto the pitch and then it's about my job and the staff's job to find the right moments and the right opportunities and opposition to use those attributes, whether it's off the bench or at the start of games.”