Ayunga earns coach’s praise after brace in England

Kenyan forward Jonah Ayunga unleashed the beast in him on Tuesday, banging a brace in the 3-1 win over Portsmouth as the Bristol Rovers caretaker boss Tommy Widdrington lauded him for the performance.

The Brighton and Hove Albion academy graduate opened the scoring for Bristol in the 34th minute turning Sean Raggett inside out before firing the ball home.

The lanky forward then doubled his tally 10 minutes later when he chested down the ball brilliantly from a Brandon Hanlan’s flicked on header and rifled the ball into the roof of the net.

Widdrington noted that Portsmouth missed out on signing Ayunga when he had a stint at the Hampshire based Havant & Waterlooville between 2018 and 2019.

“The fella scored two goals, but it might as well have been a hat-trick with the header he cleared away from our six-yard box. He played on their (Portsmouth) doorstep for a year and he scored 30 goals so they missed out on him there.”

“But, ultimately, there’s nobody inside that building who doubts Jonah Ayunga.To say that he’s been itching for his first league goal, I think it’s his second league start so now he’s two in two. From my point of view, that’s prolific,” said Widdrington.

Since signing for the club back in July, Ayunga had only scored one goal which came in the English Football League Trophy defeat to Walsall back in September.

He has struggled for game time since signing for the club as he has been used as a fringe player under former coach Paul Tisdale who was shown the door last week after a torrid run of 10 games without a win.

Widdrington highlighted the reserved nature of Ayunga but noted that his performance was ruthless.

"Jonah will get the plaudits because he scored two goals and he’ll be really shy and timid in his interviews afterwards. Believe me, that’s not what he was like for 80 minutes in that game, you could ask any of their players, he’s given them an absolutely torrid time,” he added.

Bristol next face Gillingham on Saturday 20 February with another victory bound to lift them to relegation safety.