IT WAS only a matter of time before Jacob Murphy began delivering the goods in a Sky Blues shirt and his performance on Saturday shows just why he is so highly regarded at parent club Norwich City, writes Observer sports editor Steve Carpenter.
After a series of cameo performances from the bench, a determined display at Burton and a below par display at Scunthorpe, Murphy demonstrated why he is one of the brightest young prospects in the country with a superb man of the match performance against Chesterfield.
For years previous managers have spoken about the need to bring in a winger and now we finally have one who gets his head down, runs at defenders and consequently gets fans on their feet.
His direct approach led to countless opportunities and left the Chesterfield defence scratching their heads – at one point it felt as though he was running rings around their left-back.
Every summer I purchase a copy of Four Four Two’s season preview edition. It provides an in-depth insight into what each club in the football league has been up to over the off season.
It also picks out players to watch and one of those for Norwich was Murphy. He was tipped to push for a place in the Canaries’ first team next season in the Premier League but instead Tony Mowbray used his pulling power once again to convince the young winger to join on a season-long loan.
It is also pleasing to hear Murphy’s comments after Saturday’s win. He said: “We like to put a show on for our supporters who deserve it after recent years.”
The fact that he has taken an interest in what has happened at the club in previous years shows that his committed and wants to help put things right.
Perhaps this is down to him signing on a season-long loan rather than a short term deal or maybe Mowbray has cemented that piece of recent history into all of his players’ heads.
There will no doubt be question marks over who will fill the void when Armstrong returns to Newcastle in January. With several Championship scouts keeping tabs on the young striker, it is becoming ever more obvious that his stay at the Ricoh Arena will be limited to six months.
However should Murphy continue his development and maintain the sort of levels he has now set on Saturday, while adding more goals to his tally, many fans come May could be forgiven for forgetting what all the worry was about.
