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Preston manager Alex Neil has heaped praise on Sean Maguire after the Irish striker scored an excellent goal on his debut.
23 year old Maguire, who scored 20 league goals for Cork City this season before moving to Deepdale, came off the bench to score a well-taken individual goal in the Championship club’s 2-1 defeat to Burnley.
Irish internationals Kevin Long and Jon Walters put the Clarets 2-0 up before Maguire’s debut strike on 65 minutes.
It was Simon Grayson who signed Maguire and Kevin O’Connor from the Leesiders earlier this year, but new Preston boss Neil is delighted with the former’s instant impact.
“I thought we got better in the second half and the introduction of Sean Maguire at half-time with his pace stretched the game for us,” Neil told the Preston North End website afterwards.
“It was a great individual goal, I thought his pace in behind was excellent and I thought he showed why he’s had such a good season so far this year. The lad’s been here one day and played really well based on that.”
Unsurprisingly, Maguire was delighted to start his career at the club with a goal.
“I took the ball and shifted it onto my right foot people probably thought I’d lost it, but it crept into the bottom corner and I was delighted,” he said after the game.
“I’ve been doing well for Cork and came into this game very confident.
“Coming off the bench, I knew I’d be able to make myself an opportunity and whether it goes back into the net or not that’s what I’m going to bring to the team.
“When the ball goes out wide I’m always in the box and I score a lot of goals there, I rarely score outside the box.
“That’s something I need to work on but hopefully I can kick on and take it into the next game and into the big one in a couple of weeks’ time.”
