MICHAEL Carrick is excited by summer recruit Sammy Silvera, who has looked sharp and dangerous since his Middlesbrough arrival and, according to the head coach, “has moments in him”.

Silvera opened the scoring in the 3-3 draw with Bradford City on Wednesday night with his second goal of pre-season since joining Boro from Central Coast Mariners.

 

It isn’t the goals that Carrick is judging Silvera or any of his other attacking additions on, however. Rather, the head coach is closely assessing their all-round play as the Championship season fast approaches, and he’s liked what he’s seen from the Aussie wideman.

“Sammy has looked really sharp since coming in and I’m really pleased with him,” said Carrick.

 

“I think you could see again tonight (against Bradford), he looked really dangerous and he’s got moments in him.”

 

Fellow new arrival Alex Gilbert was also on target, scoring his second summer goal having also hit the target in the win at Rotherham United last week.

 

“The goals are important, but I’m not judging those boys on goals at this stage, it’s how they’re settling,” said Carrick.

 

“Alex had a bit of a knock so he’s missed a few days training over the last couple of weeks.”

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Rav van den Berg also got 90 minutes under his belt at Valley Parade, with Carrick pleased with how the teenager handled a physical test. Leading the line for Bradford was Andy Cook, who was top scorer in League Two last season with 28 goals.

 

Carrick said: “I thought it was a really good test for Rav as well, playing centre-back in those conditions against a good forward line with plenty of experience.

 

“It was a good test for him and I thought he coped well with it. That’s what we wanted from tonight, we wanted the experience and we wanted them to find it tough at times and have to fight their way through it. I thought, all in all, the boys did well.”