Flyin' Ryan makes an instant impression (From The Bolton News)

Flyin' Ryan makes an instant impression

10:10am Thursday 26th January 2012 in Bury FC By Craig Nelson

THERE were a few raised eyebrows around Gigg Lane on Saturday when David Amoo was relegated to the bench in favour of new boy Ryan Doble.

But by the time the loan signing from Southampton was replaced by Amoo midway through the second half, it was clear that Barker had unearthed another diamond.

The Wales Under-21s international sparkled wide on the left, especially in a first half in which Bury threatened to run riot as they passed Yeovil off the park.

“I thought Ryan did ever so well,” said Barker.

“He reminded me a little bit of Michael Jones.

“He’s technically very good, delivers it off both feet and handles the ball really well in tight areas.

“He can also go and beat a man and spots a pass – he put a great delivery in with his left foot in the first half for Andy Bishop.”

Barker first enquired about Doble back in November, and when Jones left Gigg Lane earlier this month his first phone call was to Andy Crosby, the assistant manager at Southampton.

The Bury manager’s advances were welcomed by Doble, who was impressed by Barker and by the testimony given by Wales U21s goalkeeping coach Anthony Williams, who also works at Bury.

“Anthony had nothing but praise for the team, so I was already interested when I found out about the move last Monday,” said the 20-year-old forward.

Wales U21s manager Brian Flynn was at Gigg Lane to see Doble’s impressive Bury debut, and while the youngster is only contracted for a month, he said he was willing to extend that if things continued to go well.

That was music to Barker’s ears.

“I think Saturday was the strongest bench we’ve had for probably the whole season,” said the Bury boss.

“When Ryan started to fade a little bit, it was great that I could bring David (Amoo) on as I knew it would give the whole crowd a lift.

“That’s the competition for places that we’ve been working towards. I’ve said to one or two of them that they should be looking over to the bench and thinking ‘I don’t want to be losing my place to him, because I might not get it back’.”