Boss hoping Oliver will grow in confidence

Steve Davis was delighted for Vadaine Oliver after his substitute scored a real contender goal of the season with a brilliant strike. Oliver bustled his way past Darren Ward and Nathan Byrne before an unleashing an unstoppable shot past Tyrell Belford in the Swindon goal.

It was only Oliver’s second goal of the season following his summer move from Lincoln and the Sheffield-born hit-man has endured a frustrating time. He was harshly sent-off against Crawley for two bookings – the second one for diving when he was blatantly bought down in the penalty area.

He also had an acrobatic overhead kick disallowed at Carlisle following a head injury to Adam Dugdale. On that occasion the referee didn’t allowed the play to continue for more than five seconds.

Davis is now hoping that his wonderful equaliser on Saturday may give Oliver extra confidence going forward.

The Alex boss told crewealex.net: “Everyone was delighted for Vadaine. I actually said to him before he went on to go on and try and get us an equaliser. He smiled at me when he came off and it was a fantastic strike from him.

“Hopefully the goal will give him more confidence. It is only his second goal of the season and he has found scoring goals at this level difficult.

“He showed great power and strength to get through and then it was a fantastic shot. It came from nowhere and to be fair to Vadaine he practices his finishing. He works hard on it and it is improving.

Steve added: “He is one of those players who will need a bit of time to make that step up. He is making small steps of progress rather than massive ones, but we do see the improvement in training.”