Manager Brian Barry-Murphy on Gabriel Osho, who joined the Club on loan from Luton Town on Thursday…
“I’ve known Gabriel since he was very young at Reading,” said BBM in his post-match interview on Saturday.
“There are similarities between him and Eoghan O’Connell in terms of them being touted as someone who’s going to be at the very top of the game by the time it probably came to this stage, but he had injuries and set-backs at Reading and found himself at Luton so I’m very grateful that Nathan Jones thinks that we can help improve his development.
“He’s a player that I have admired for a long time and when you get the chance to acquire someone you rate so highly [you do that].
“His qualities are there for all to see. It gives everybody in the squad a lift. We always try to bring in a recruit who’s going to have that sense of excitement for the players. Hopefully over the next nine or ten days we can add a few more of those guys who will give us a real lift and make us stronger in all departments.”
The 22-year-old went straight into the starting eleven for Saturday’s game against Gillingham, playing the full game for Dale at the Priestfield Stadium.
“There was brilliant leadership [from him]. He played last week for Luton in the FA Cup so he was up to speed in some aspects, but to go into a physical test like that, bearing in mind how the opposition play, I thought he was immense.
“To see him finish the game so strongly was very rewarding for us. He’s the type of guy we wanted to bring in and he can only enhance our squad - he fits our profile perfectly for what we want.”