Gary Holt has no doubt the best is yet to come from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas following an eye-catching debut for Livingston.
The former Arsenal attacker played the full 90 minutes as the Lions roared back from a one-goal deficit to defeat Alloa 2-1 in the Betfred Cup.
Emmanuel-Thomas inspired the strike which restored parity, with his powerful surge forward and fizzing drive palmed into the path of Alan Forrest by Wasps goalkeeper Neil Parry. The Livi winger made no mistake on the rebound.
That cancelled out Robert Thomson’s first-half opener, before Josh Mullin’s intelligent chip completed the turnaround.
And while Emmanuel-Thomas may not have troubled the scoresheet – he did see a first-half header disallowed – Holt was delighted with what he saw and is certain he will soon add goals to his game.
“There is plenty more to come from him,” said Holt. “But there were already a lot of positive things.
“His link-up play was good, his shot which leads to Alan Forrest’s goal was good and he was in the right areas.
“Jay also gives us that out-ball if we are under pressure.
“The wide players and wee Pitts (Scott Pittman) will know that nine times out of 10 the ball will stick and they can gamble.
“But he isn’t just there as a focal point, we want him to score goals and we’ll work on a few things.”
Alloa boss Peter Grant said: “There were a hell of a lot of good things for us, especially in the first half. We played some fantastic stuff, created chances and never gave up.”
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