Sparkling debut for Brighton loanee Caylan Vickers lifts Mansfield Town, despite another defeat
Despite a sixth defeat in a row for Mansfield Town on Friday night, new Brighton loanee Caylan Vickers delighted with a thrilling debut.
Vickers was a bright spark as Stags lost 1-0 to Northampton and boss Nigel Clough said: “Everyone was very excited with what they saw in Caylan on Friday night and the crowd warmed to him straight away.
“We are pleased we've got him for the next 18 games.
“He looks an exciting prospect and we were very pleased with his debut.
“He did the first two or three things well and it's funny how first impressions count.
“You should judge people over a period of time. But when the first two or three things he did were so good you could see the crowd warm to him from that point on.
“For his first game in League One for a year I thought he was very good.
“He is a bit similar to Davis Keillor-Dunn in that, if you give him the ball, he can create something out of nothing.
“Hopefully he will play a role in the next two or three months.
“He'd only had two or three days training with us.”
He continued: “The players know straight away if someone is any good or not, they suss it out straight away in training.
“They quickly realised he can handle the ball and they were giving him the ball, as they were on Friday night.
“He certainly lifted the crowd.
“He is a quiet lad so we don't know too much about him yet. He's only 20 years old. But you can see he wants to come out and play which says an awful lot about him as a character straight away.
“He had a bit of a taste of it over a year ago at Reading in the first half of the season and now he's come back out to League One and wants to prove himself.
“He has come from the comfort of Brighton to Mansfield Town where he knows we are going to be digging in and fighting and scrapping for the rest of the season – and he wants to be part of it. That is good.”
Midfielder George Maris concurred with his manager's thoughts, saying: “I thought Caylan was great the other night.
“He got on the ball and got us up the pitch.
“He was different and I don't think we've had that sort of player for a while now.
“He can help us. We don't really have a player in the squad that can drive forward and do little tricks like him.
“It helps you massively as a team to have someone who can carry the ball like that – it's something we have lacked. We haven't had that dribbler in the squad and he has come in and shown that straight away.
“Fair play. He is a young lad but he was straight on it the other night and he was great.
“We need that fearless approach and he is a bright spark. He has given everyone a bit of a lift, the fans included.”