King is learning fast now

I am so glad that the fans have not got on Josh King's case but have allowed him to grow into his task. He has massive shoes to fill and that may have seemed daunting at first to him. He had not been scoring goals, which is not beneficial to any striker and the pressure on him was growing. Now I hope he feels a release and with Junior Stanislas also enjoying his spell in the team there is an evident excitement about how good these players could become, as they are already starting to soak up all the advice and tactics that Eddie Howe and his coaching staff are implying to them.

The international break really gave Josh King a chance to hone his game further as he was not involved with the Norway squad. It was a good time for Josh to work on his game and we have seen the results. Eddie was quick to praise him after the Newcastle game and he has continued to build his confidence which finally resulted in his first Premier League goal against Swansea. What was even more pleasing is that I could see elements of the striker that played for Blackburn and ripped through Stoke's defence last spring. Josh almost scored a replica goal to one of those FA Cup strikes, but for a fine save by Fabianski in the first half at Swansea, when he ran with the ball for a good half of the pitch before holding off defenders and releasing his shot.

I always saw Josh as a good lad who tries hard but perhaps did not extend himself fully. I wanted to see a bit more of a nasty or stronger character to his game when he shrugs off defenders and has the ambition to go on and score. It is there in his game, but we have not really seen too much of it. Eddie Howe seems to be flushing it out now and that selfish striker confidence is starting to come through as I hoped it might. The aim will be to see if he can score a brace or a hat-trick in forthcoming games or to do a Vardy and just keep finding the net. The important point is that he off the mark and can now look to get on a run of goals.