Manchester United Ethan Hamilton has made a good impression on loan at Southend.
Hamilton played 90 minutes for the first time for his new side in midweek, and stood out despite a 2-0 loss to Peterborough.
Manager Kevin Bond made a point of praising his performance, telling The Daily Echo: “Ethan looked impressive on Tuesday.
“He looked powerful and ran with the ball. He looked to take the game to them and was always looking to get a shot away.”
It was his second game on loan, having played 45 minutes in the loss to Lincoln days earlier.
Hamilton clearly has his work cut out. The United youngster’s loan club sit bottom of League One with no points after four games.
The only teams below them in the table are crisis clubs Bury and Bolton.
Familiar praise
Hamilton spent the second half of the season last year at Rochdale, also in League One.
He earned praise then, with boss Brian Barry-Murphy telling the club website: “Ethan is capable of scoring goals and he has been an incredible team player.”
Despite Southend’s struggles, it is good to see the United youngster making a good impression.
United outlook
We have to keep it real, Hamilton is going to find it tough to make it at Manchester United.
Players younger than him in his position, James Garner and Dylan Levitt are creating buzz for the under-23s and getting talked up for potential first team chances.
We said at the start of pre-season that Hamilton had an outside chance of going on tour, after his strong loan last season, but he did not make the cut.
His loan at Southend runs until the end of the season, although it is possible United could look to re-assign him half-way through.
At this point it probably looks like Hamilton is playing for his future, to set himself up when he leaves United.
So at least the Scotland youth international is off to a good start personally, even if his team are not.
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