Roberto Martinez hails McAleny display

daniel russell 09:36 - 12 July 2015

Conor McAleny joined Everton’s Academy at just 11 and in the summer of 2008 was recruited as a full-time scholar.

The Blues defeated Swindon Town 4-0 on Saturday with goals from Kevin Mirallas (2), Romelu Lukaku and McAleny.

Roberto Martinez was thrilled with the impact of Conor McAleny after Everton’s pre-season win over Swansea.The Blues defeated Swindon Town 4-0 on Saturday with goals from Kevin Mirallas (2), Romelu Lukaku and McAleny.The academy product had a hand in the first three goals before notching himself late on.Martinez told evertontv: “It was very important for Conor to get the pre-season work done injury-free. When you are young and your body is still developing, you can pick up little niggles and injuries which is frustrating for everyone not just for Conor.“Now, he has had a very good run of work and we are hoping he can stay fit because he’s got really good low balance. He can turn at pace, he’s very strong and his finishing has real quality.“We hope he can push on now and complete pre-season injury-free.”McAleny’s performance was just one of a number of positives on the day.The manager added: “It was a thoroughly satisfactory afternoon because the first situation where you play 11 against 11 for the first time is always a tough one.“We’ve done a lot of volume work at Finch Farm this week and it has been great to see the attitude of the players.“It doesn’t matter who you are playing against, to get a clean sheet shows the concentration levels were very, very good and from a physical point of view, I thought it was a perfect workout.”