Seen His Quality – Nottingham Forest Out-on-loan Star Talked Up By Team-mate | OneFootball

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Mansfield Town defender Kyle Knoyle has admitted that the team have seen Nottingham Forest loanee Joe Gardner’s quality on the training pitch and he believes that the challenge for him is now to continue his form.

The Irish talent came through Nottingham Forest’s youth system and has featured heavily for the Tricky Trees youth teams over the years.

Last year in February, Gardner made his Nottingham Forest senior team debut in the FA Cup and in the winter window, he was loaned out to Lincoln City.

Lincoln star Reeco Hackett hailed the Ireland Under-21 international for his rapid growth through regular game time as he impressed with the Imps.

The 20-year-old versatile forward scored a beautiful solo goal against Stevenage last weekend and Stags star Knoyle dubbed his goal ‘top’.

However, he got injured following his loan switch to Mansfield Town in mid-July and only made his debut for the League One side earlier this month.

Knoyle revealed that he has seen bits and pieces of Gardner’s qualities in training.

“Yes, it was [a] top [goal]”, the 28-year-old Stags right-back told Mansfield Town’s media (2:01) when he was asked about Gardner’s goal against Stevenage.

“I mean, we have not seen a loads of Joe, obviously, with his injury.

“But, we have seen glimpses recently in training, and you know what he can do, and he’s obviously shown that at the weekend.

“And then the challenge for him is to keep doing that if he can.”

Nottingham Forest rate the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international highly, and they tied him to a new contract back in January, which will keep him at the club until 2027.

When the 20-year-old attacker will be on the pitch again remains to be seen as he was forced off through injury on Saturday as Mansfield lost 2-1 at Port Vale