SPORT MIPO SET TO STAKE HIS CLAIM
ON-LOAN STRIKER IMPRESSES IN B-TEAM SHOWING AS HE LOOKS TO GET BACK IN FIRST-TEAM ACTION
MIPO Odubeko took a belated step towards more first-team involvement as he turned out for the Terriers’ B team in their one-sided victory over Walsall yesterday.
The Huddersfield Town loanee joined from West Ham United the day before the summer transfer deadline but has made just four short substitute appearances for Carlos Corberan’s side in the two months since.
Odubeko started alongside Kian Harratt and Micah Obiero in the B team’s front three and played the full 90 minutes as Town swept Walsall aside.
A Brahima Diarra header and a Samin Sarvari own goal put Town in control midway through the first half before Obiero made it three goals in six minutes by following up on a deflected effort from Odubeko.
The striker then added one of his own on 63 minutes, winning a loose ball before winning a one-on-one with the Walsall keeper.
Harratt, Kit Elliott and Ben Jackson added to the scoring late on to round out a comprehensive 7-0 victory for Town.
Odubeko has not been included in any of Town’s last five matchday squads, with Fraizer Campbell and Danny Ward preferred as options at centre forward.
That’s despite the 19 year old having largely been fit and available for selection - though his absence for the 2-0 victory over Hull City on 16th October was in part because he had been feeling unwell in the lead-up to that game.
Corberan explained then that the intention was to include Odubeko in a B-team game against Preston North End before the Hull match to get minutes in his legs, just as Town did with Josh Ruffels and Rolando Aarons, but that his illness had stood in the way.
The head coach said of Odubeko at the time: “He’s a very young player with a lot of potential but he still needs to continue growing and developing to make an impact in the
Championship.
“But it doesn’t mean he can’t play. For me he is a player with the skills and the potential to play, it’s just the adaptation to the process, the maturity and the mobility that he needs to add to his game to compete and have a better impact in the Championship. That is what he wants and that is what we want with him.
“But the fact he is not involved does not mean he is not working well or we aren’t working a lot with him. We are working more with him when I know he is not going to be involved in a game.”
He added: “For me it’s necessary [to take things gradually] when you don’t have the experience of playing in the Championship, especially when you are a young player arriving to this squad on the last day without making pre-season with the team.”