Championship boss hails 'incredible' Leeds United player with 'penny dropped'

Twenty-two-year-old Ian Poveda joined Blackpool on a season-long loan at the end of August and featured in the next six games after his arrival, three of which yielded starts. But Poveda’s game time then dipped and the attacker bagged just 11 minutes of football in the nine games that followed via two late outings from the bench.

Poveda, though, was brought on with 24 minutes left of December’s goalless draw at Blackpool, after which Blackpool boss Michael Appleton hailed an improvement in the Whites loanee’s attitude and performance. Appleton’s words suggested that Poveda could be heading for increased involvement and the Whites attacker then bagged his first assist when coming off the bench in the subsequent 1-1 draw at Cardiff City.

Poveda has since started Blackpool’s last four games, and Appleton says his latest showing in Saturday’s 4-1 victory at home to third round FA Cup visitors Nottingham Forest was perhaps his best yet.

The Whites loanee excelled in the no 10 role and enjoyed a major Tangerines first by bagging his first goal for the club to put Blackpool 2-0 up in the 64th minute. Poveda then bagged an assist by laying on the cross from which Jerry Yates put his side 4-0 up and Appleton has since been full of praise for the Whites loanee.

Pressed on Poveda’s display being his best yet for Blackpool, Appleton reasoned: “It’s definitely one of them. I think the goal probably nudges it. He’s had a couple of really good performances of late, really good performances and not got his rewards. He’s another one since the break, it’s almost as if the penny has dropped a little bit. His work-rate is incredible to be fair for a lad who’s playing in that position. The amount of recovery runs he’s been doing over the last couple of games has been great. His attitude has been spot on and you can see he’s enjoying his football.”