Nottingham Forest’s Joe Lolley was again taking the headlines following the weekend’s victory over Hull City.
Making the trip to the KCOM Stadium for the Championship clash following the end of the November international break, Forest took a 2-0 victory with second-half goals coming from ever-reliable Lewis Grabban and Lolley himself who registered a best ever league scoring record in a single season as he continues to develop.
Given his performances for manager Aitor Karanka, he came in for significant praise following Hull as the gaffer spoke to the Nottingham Post but despite Lolley appearing to be a snip at the reported £2million we are said to have paid Huddersfield Town for his services last January, Karanka believes that if knuckles down and works even harder on his game he can still go up another level or two.
“Joe has been playing really well, all season. But for Joe, I think the next step is to have even more ambition; to try to score even more goals. If he can score more goals, it will bring so much more for him. I think and hope there is more to come from him, because he has everything and he is helping us a lot. His numbers have been good in the past and he is confident because he is playing well. But he needs more pressure to keep improving. At the level he is at, we are good. But we are in November and December, January and February will quickly come and we need to keep working hard to improve. By that I mean all of us, even myself. We need to keep working hard to improve.”
With a very steady rise through the professional pyramid given his late entry to the game from non-league level, I certainly don’t see why he can’t improve even further as he’s already shown what he’s capable of since arriving at the club.
With Aston Villa on Wednesday evening, given Lolley used to sit in the Holte End as a kid when he wasn’t playing, that’ll be a massive match and one he should relish rising to the occasion in.
