Elliott Dickman has praised the robust, physical and tenacious efforts of Andrew Nelson.
Sunderland under-23s head to Leicester City this evening as they revert their attentions back to their Premier League 2 campaign.
Last Wednesday saw striker Nelson return to the Black Cats’ team, following a short-term loan at Naitional League North side Harrogate, with a bang.
Nelson was introduced midway through the second 45 of Sunderland’s Premier League International Cup tie against Legia Warsaw, and with just four minutes left on the clock the youngster pounced to earn the lads a deserved point at Eppleton Colliery Welfare.
And speaking to safc.com, Dickman praised the return of Nelson, admitting his attributes provide him with a completely different kind of option.
“It has been great for him because he has experienced a number of games at Harrogate,” he said.
“He has played against men, challenging for three points in a league where they are hoping to get promotion.
“The loan has been a positive one for him, it would’ve been easy to have thrown him in but he obviously had a tough game on Saturday where he scored against Spennymoor.
“The idea was he was always going to get some minutes (against Legia Warsaw) and to be fair to him it is typical of Andrew.”
He continued: “He works hard, he is quite aggressive as a player and he has scored a great goal as well – it is his first goal of the season for us so we are delighted.
“Joel has been away on international duty, so it hasn’t been easy for him.
“It made sense to bring Andrew on (in that situation). He is a different player to Joel, Andrew is aggressive and his endeavour got him a goal at the end of the day which is fantastic for him.”