Aaron Connolly: 'It seemed to take an age for the ball to trickle over the line'

The Republic of Ireland international hopes his weekend goal for Middlesbrough against Derby County can help to put a frustrating run of form behind him

Saturday’s goal for the Galwegian in the 4-1 over Derby County came on his sixth appearance since joining the Championship club from Brighton and Hove Albion.

Aaron Connolly has been ordered by his Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder not to beat himself up after getting off the mark in his loan spell.

Saturday’s goal for the Galwegian in the 4-1 over Derby County came on his sixth appearance since joining the Championship club from Brighton and Hove Albion.

After a frustrating year that has seen him drift from a first-choice for Ireland, the striker can only hope the breakthrough sparks a resurgence of the form which marked him out as one of the Premier League’s brightest young talents in late 2019.

The 22-year-old’s efforts against Wayne Rooney's Rams earned him inclusion in the official SkyBet Championship team of the week.

“I’d text the gaffer a couple of times after my first few games saying I’d had a slow start," Connolly revealed about his weekend watershed.

“That was obvious and I’m not going to shy away from that fact.

“So when I came off, he just said, ‘listen, I don’t want to hear you say that again’.

“I feel like I’ve found my feet now, I know how to play with all of the players and what they like and don’t like, and they’re starting to learn the same about me.” Admitting his struggles for club and country affected his confidence, Connolly is only looking one-way as he bids to aid the promotion quest of sixth-placed Boro.

“I haven’t played a lot of football in the last two years. My career maybe came to a little bit of a stop and my confidence went, so since coming here in January, I’ve been desperate to put in a shift like that.

“It seemed to take an age for the ball to trickle over the line, but it felt like such a relief when it finally did. Maybe I’d been putting too much pressure on myself to score. So I just thought, go back to basics, go back to what I used to do. Work hard and the rewards will come with that.”