ROBERT Hall certainly made a huge impact on his Oxford United debut this week.

And the 17-year-old’s hunger can only stand him in good stead for the rest of his loan spell with the U’s – and the future.

Hall is extremely highly thought of at West Ham, and his winning goal at Dagenham on Tuesday night instantly appeared as the main story on the Hammers’ website that evening.

United boss Chris Wilder says that the application the teenager displayed was exactly what he wanted to see.

“Rob showed a lot of good attributes and he can be well pleased with his debut,” he said.

“I said after the game that there aren’t many harder places to make your first appearance and he did really well.”

Hall has come into the squad as a replacement for the unfortunate Jonathan Franks, who dislocated a shoulder in a behind-closed-doors match at Bristol City, and also for Jon-Paul Pittman, who this week joined Crawley on a three-month loan.

Pittman’s move will have surprised some people, having only joined in the summer, but Wilder feels he did not do enough to force himself into the first team.

“(Rotherham boss) Andy Scott made a good point recently,” Wilder commented. “He said that ‘I’m not here to be friends with the players, they have got to produce.’ “And it is the players who have to make the biggest push to get in the team.

“If they are doing it in training and then making an impact in matches be it from the start or after coming off the bench, they determine the chances they get.

“Robbie came in for his first game on Tuesday, and the question I would ask is has he done enough in that game to play again?

“The answer is yes, which is the top and bottom of it.”

Wilder added honestly: “Some signings work, some don’t. Some hit it off straight away and some are slow burners, but I can’t hang about.

“I made the decision on JP. It’s nothing personal, but he hasn’t done enough and hasn’t made a big enough impact when he’s come off the bench.

“That was the question I put to JP – can you do more. I then took a backward step and watched to see if he could.

“We felt, and JP felt, that he was better off trying elsewhere. You just have to be positive about the decisions you make.”

Pittman seems to have jumped at the chance to rejoin Crawley, which is understandable considering he enjoyed success there in the past, but strange that having said he wants first-team football, has gone to a side where his chances are likely to be limited.

There was, I understand, another League Two club interested in taking him, where first-team football would have almost been a given, but he declined that move to go back to Crawley.