Andy Carroll taking Championship chance

Nov 10 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Carroll is not the only former Academy player to make a positive impression under Hughton. Tamas Kadar looks an excellent prospect at centre-back, while Nile Ranger has delivered a series of encouraging cameo performances up front.

And Hughton admitted he had always expected Carroll to play a more prominent role than the others because of his previous first-team experience.

Carroll made his debut against Palermo in the Uefa Cup three years ago and also played under Alan Shearer at the tail end of last season as his progress gathered pace.

However, few expected the former Joseph Swan School, Gateshead pupil to develop so quickly and even Hughton has been pleasantly surprised with the impact that he has made in the absence of the injured Shola Ameobi.

Hughton added: “It’s a similar situation with Nile Ranger, Tamas Kadar, Kazenga LuaLua, Ben Tozer and Ryan Donaldson, but it’s important to remember that Andy was probably a little bit ahead of them.

“He made his debut when Glenn Roeder was manager and he has been in and around the first team since a very young age.

“He is still young, of course, but he isn’t new to the squad.”

Nevertheless, while Hughton has plenty of kind words for Carroll he is wary of allowing him to believe that he is anything more than an exciting prospect as he challenged him to continue on a sharp learning curve.

He said: “What I want to see from him is continued development. He has done very well, but there is room for improvement in every single aspect of his game.

“He has got to score more goals and he has got to get himself into goalscoring positions (more often). That’s obvious. Every striker will look back on a season and will be judged on how many goals they have scored.

“I think he is terrific in the air and we have seen that this season at both ends of the pitch, but he should be aiming to constantly improve his all-round game.

“That is what it is all about at his age and we are constantly reminding him of that.”