Hibernian defender Tom James insists he is happy to keep cooking for flat-mate Christian Doidge if the striker continues to exhibit his insatiable appetite for goals.
The Welsh newcomers got off the mark with second half strikes in Saturday’s laborious 2-0 victory over Alloa.
While former Yeovil full-back James’ was the pick of the bunch, curling a sublime effort into the top corner from outside the area, it was Doidge’s first for the club that would have left the Hibs supporters encouraged for the future.
Doidge outpaced Wasps centre halves Scott Taggart and Andy Graham to race on to Fraser Murray’s pass before flicking the ball over Neil Parry.
READ MORE: Steven Gerrard says Rangers bargain Joe Aribo can go right to the very top
The Leith side shelled out a reported £300,000 for Doidge in a move from Forest Green Rovers and, naturally, that investment will be judged against the 26-year-old’s success in finding the net.
“That's what he's here for, those clever runs in behind,” said James, who came up against the marksman in English League Two last term.
“When you give him half a chance he's going to take them.
“It was a good ball from Fraz and what I’d expect from him.
“It’s the same with all of our strikers, it's good to get an early goal in the season.
“Now he's got his first competitive goal I'm sure he's going to be flying.”
James is also playing his part in ensuring Doidge is suitably fuelled to cause a nuisance to opposition defences.
He added: “I’m living with him at the moment. He's got me cooking for him!
“But we're looking now to get our own places so we'll see how it goes."
The 2-0 scoreline does not give an accurate representation of how the game panned out.
Alloa had frustrated Paul Heckingbottom’s side for long spells and enjoyed sustained spells of possession during the opening 45 minutes.
READ MORE: Scott Bain: Reaching the Champions League is our dream - it will be like winning a cup
So much so that that home fans booed their team off at the break.
James, however, was not put off by that reaction.
“You know the expectations at a club this size are really big,” he added.
“We know that and our expectations are the same.
“We came in at half time knowing that it wasn't good enough. The gaffer said a few things in there to try and rile us up a bit and I think it worked.”
James’ effort came six minutes before the end of the game after Doidge broke Alloa’s resistance in the 68th minute.
Alloa left without points but new manager Peter Grant insists his side can be pleased with their effort.
He said: “We’ve got good players here and we’ve got to trust them to play that way in keeping possession of the ball.
“We have to defend better as a group but all round I was happy with the performance.
“We won’t be playing against that quality every week when the Championship starts.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here