Cherries: Bradbury tells Taylor to take his chance

Cherries boss Lee Bradbury assessed his depleted attacking resources and then told Lyle Taylor: This is your chance. Bradbury urged the rookie frontman to take his first-team opportunity after seeing his options further reduced by the the departure of Danny Ings. Ings yesterday linked up with former manager Eddie Howe at Burnley, signing a four-year deal at Turf Moor. The deal is understood to be worth a Cherries club record transfer fee, rising to around £1million. The striker's exit comes at a time when Bradbury has seen his two other first-choice forwards struck down by injury, with Michael Symes (groin) |sidelined for around four weeks and Steve Lovell (thigh) ruled |out of tonight's home League |One clash against Stevenage (7.45pm). Taylor had begun the campaign behind that trio in the pecking order but has so far taken the chance to make an impression in their absence. Having netted six goals in a productive pre-season campaign, he opened his competitive Cherries account with a double in the 5-0 hammering of Dagenham and Redbridge last week. He kept his place for Saturday's victory over Sheffield Wednesday and could start again tonight. Bradbury said: Lyle scored goals in pre-season and his next challenge was to score goals in the first team when he came in. He got in the team and scored a couple of good goals last Tuesday and he did very well again on Saturday. This is his chance to grab a shirt and keep it. After making the leap into the professional ranks following a switch from non-league Concord Rangers last summer, Taylor was loaned out to further his development. Bradbury believes he is benefiting from a more mature approach this term. The Cherries manager added: He is quicker than people give him credit for and is one of the quickest in the squad. He is strong with his back to goal and holds up the ball very well. He is also bright and links up play well around the edge of the box and can cause big centre-halves problems. You couldn't have expected him to come from Concord Rangers to League One and be on fire straight away. It was going to take a little bit of time to adapt to the pace of training, the league and what was expected of him. But now he has grown up quite a lot in a year, on and off the pitch. He has taken responsibility more and it is showing.

Source: Bournemouth_Echo