CHERRIES development squad boss Alan Connell believes his young charges had taken their “opportunity” to impress as they defeated Portsmouth in the Hampshire Senior Cup quarter-finals.

Inspired by David Brooks’ first-half hat-trick, Connell’s side came from two goals behind inside 22 minutes to run out 5-2 winners, Daniel Adu-Adjei adding a goal in either half.

With members of Cherries’ first-team coaching set-up in attendance, including head coach Gary O’Neil and former development squad head coach Shaun Cooper, Connell believed the fixture offered a platform for the youngsters to impress senior staff.

Discussing the game, Connell told the Daily Echo: “Very pleasing.

“The big word I used before the game tonight to the players was opportunity.

“And even David Brooks - opportunity for him to get 45 minutes under his belt, and for our young players, obviously, an opportunity to impress the people watching, whether it be club staff, the supporters.

“You can imagine that I'm delighted with the performance and very proud of what the players produced.

“And I thought they took that opportunity.

“It's nice to progress into the next round off the back of it.”

After coming off the bench during Cherries’ 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend, Brooks played 45 minutes on Tuesday night in the next step of his road to recovery following over a year out of action.

The Welsh international last started a competitive fixture for Cherries’ senior team in September 2021, Brooks being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Given the all clear in May 2022, a hamstring injury further delayed Brooks’ return.

Asked about the task of helping Brooks in his journey to full fitness, Connell replied: “He's quite a unique situation because of what he's coming back from, but you can see the players are excited to play with him. His quality is obvious, he's obviously scored three and he produced other magic moments in that first half.

“But, yeah, from my point of view, to manage it, it's just making sure when we trained, it's just letting him know what we want from the game, not overloading him with information, because obviously his talent’s there for all to see.

“So he fitted in really well and we're just more than happy to support the next step in his recovery.

“It was a great experience having him out there for us as staff, but more importantly for our young players.”

Adu-Adjei, currently on loan at seventh-tier Poole Town, missed the Dolphins’ trip to Hanwell Town in order to feature at the Vitality Stadium.

Explaining the decision, Connell mentioned: “Daniel could have played for Poole Town tonight, but obviously we felt getting him out here in front of our senior club staff was important and he's obviously taken his opportunity.

“For the fifth goal that's an experienced League One centre-half (Clark Robertson) he's run down and he's finished off really well both goals ,and that's the quality we know he's got.”