Strachan leaves for Teeside happy

Championship side Middlesbrough concluded their mini-tour of Ireland on Wednesday evening with a 3-0 victory over Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds. This followed their 1-1 draw against Athlone Town on Monday evening, but the game against Bray was notable for the first appearances in the Teeside colours of Kris Boyd, the former Rangers marksman.

Boyd joins a number of players who have come from the Scottish league like Kevin Thomson, Stephen McManus and Scott McDonald. It is no surprise to see so many players from Scotland lining up for the Teeside-outfit with former Celtic boss Gordon Strachan currently managing them.

Speaking to Extra Time after their defeat of Bray, the former Manchester United star was happy with the two games in Ireland, and felt that they recovered from a somewhat lacklustre start against Bray to finally get on top of the Wicklow men.

“Yeah, the two clubs have been good that we've played against, Athlone and Bray. They've treated the game well, they've been competitive, but they've not been nasty. They did well. We played pre-season of lacklustre football for the first twenty minutes, only then when we started making defenders defend did it become a game”, Strachan remarked.

“Bray's players were doing the defending during the first half, we never got moving. We got at their back four more in the second half. I know they made changes, which made it difficult for them”.

Middlesbrough did have one Irish player in his side in the shape of former Man City and Celtic midfielder Willo Flood. Strachan feels that he is a very capable performer, and once he finds his feet after his lengthy injury lay-off, he thinks that he has what it takes to make Giovanni Trapattoni's Ireland squad.

“Willo is a good player, it's just been five months or more than five months since he played. So, he’ll take his time to be fit. He's good enough to play at a high level that's for sure”.

Also on the books of Boro for a spell last year was former Bray and Galway United man Jay O'Shea, who was on a month-long loan deal from Premiership side Birmingham last March. Strachan was impressed with the Dubliner during his time at the club, but revealed that he won't be returning to the club this season, as Strachan feel that he needs to be playing first-team football at this stage in his career, and he wouldn't be guaranteed that at the Riverside Stadium.

“Jay did well for us. He won't be coming back (on loan again). I think at this stage in his career he needs games and big Alex (McLeish, the Birmingham manager and Strachan's former team-mate at Aberdeen) thinks so as well”.

Strachan also believes that there is plenty of talent in Ireland, even though he doesn't focus as strongly on the scouting network in Ireland as he did during his time at Celtic. He also stated that he was impressed with a couple of Bray's players, even though he didn't know what their names were.

“Well yes (I would follow Ireland through the scouting network), but more so when I was at Celtic, not so much now. The standard is good. Good home-grown units. Just look at the boys who've gone over the last four or five years to their credit. There were one or two (from Bray that impressed me) but I don't know their names! There were no names on the back of their jersey and they were changing furiously so I couldn't tell you what their numbers were!”, joked Strachan.