That and his forward pressing is what encouraged me the most. For an 18-year-old still gingerly finding his feet in the professional game, never mind at a club like ours, it would have been easy to stick to safe sideways passing - keep the ball, recycle it, let someone else (probably Winksy) handle the progressive passing. Hell, Winks did the same himself when he burst onto the scene - there was a lot of sideways and backward passing, which has only recently subsided in favor of more aggression and penetration.
That Skipp had the courage to look up and try some longer, more penetrative passes in only his second league start for us says quite a bit about a) his bravery, and b) the enabling environment Poch has built. When you're new to any job, you're more inclined to try bold things if you know that you won't be held accountable in a negative way if they don't come off. And it's very likely that Poch does that with players like Skippy - he demands a lot of loyalty and commitment from players, of course, but I have zero doubt that he also builds them up by letting them try things without fear.
Same goes with Skipp's forward pressing, including the pressing that led to the second goal. It's risky, but it's also brave - and in Skippy's case, even in the cases where his passing broke down, he was usually first over to press the man in possession.
Good things all round.
