Hibs’ midfielder Mark Milligan has insisted that team-mate Martin Boyle will a valuable addition to Caltex Socceroos manager Graham Arnold’s attacking options.
Milligan who has quickly won the admiration of the Hibs’ fans since his move to Easter Road believes that the Aussies can look forward to an era of exciting and attacking football under Arnold whose reign begun with last month’s 4-0 victory over Kuwait and continues with Saturday’s Suncorp Stadium clash with Korea Republic, while Lebanon visit ANZ Stadium on Tuesday.
Fellow Hibs’ player Jamie Maclaren is also included in the squad and should all three feature at the same time it will be the first occasion that three Hibs’ players have represented a country other than Scotland.
Milligan said: “He’s (Boyle) an exciting player. He’s been scoring goals for us and he’s very positive, very fast and looks to get in behind.
“I think Boyley will add another dimension to what we do going forward.
“The way that Arnie wants to play, in getting forward and the rotations he wants to use, I think Boyley will fit in quite well and I think he’ll a threat to anyone we play, whether that be across Asia or Europe.
“We’re going to playing a bit different. “Arnie [Graham Arnold] has his way of playing and I think the focus isn’t just going to be on the front one or the front two.
“I think our overall way of playing is going to help us score goals and I think you saw the beginning of that against Kuwait a month ago.
“I think we’ve got a lot of a young and exciting players. I think Awer [Mabil] was excellent last game and at club level he’s been fantastic.
“Tommy [Rogic] has been doing what Tommy does in Scotland, scoring goals against my team and each week.
“We’ve got a lot of attacking weapons, with Jamie [Maclaren] and with Boyley [Martin Boyle] coming in as well.
“I think there’s a lot there to be excited for and there’s a lot there for the public to be excited by.
“As I say we’ve been doing a lot of work on going forward and scoring goals.
“I think Bert [van Marwijk] gave us a good base defensively. Obviously Arnie is fine tuning that but I think going forward it is going to be exciting to watch.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
