Former Scottish top flight star Tam McManus has labelled the performance that one of Sunderland’s loan stars put in last weekend as ‘absolutely superb’.
Black Cats boss Regis Le Bris made calls to loan several Sunderland players out over the summer, with Timothee Pembele, Pierre Ekwah, Luis Semedo, Nectarios Triantis and Nathan Bishop on the books elsewhere.
Sunderland signed Australian centre-back Triantis last summer from Central Coast Mariners and loaned him to Hibernian in the second half of the season.
Despite an underwhelming loan spell at Easter Road last season, Hibs opted to take the Sunderland star on loan again on deadline day.
Triantis featured in Hibs’ 1-1 draw against Kilmarnock at the weekend where he played as a defensive midfielder and he managed to impress McManus with his performance.
McManus admitted that seeing Triantis joining Hibs on deadline did not excite him, but stated that the Black Cats youngster played superbly in the new position against Kilmarnock.
He also added that Triantis came very close to winning Hibs the game with an individual move where he cut past several opposition players but only to be unfortunate by hitting the crossbar.
“I know the reaction to Triantis coming back up on loan from Sunderland on deadline day wasn’t the most enthusiastic”, McManus wrote in his Daily Record column.
“The highlight of his first loan spell was knocking out his own team mates Joe Newell and Will Fish with one hilarious mistimed free kick.
“But the big Aussie was absolutely superb in the holding midfield role on Saturday and very nearly KO’d Killie when he waltzed past three or four players and smashed one off the crossbar.”
The Sunderland star will be determined to impress during his second spell with Hibs to get into Le Bris’ plans for next season.
