YANIC Wildschut may have announced himself on the Championship stage on Saturday, but George Friend admits it wasn’t surprising to see the Dutchman impress on his first start for Middlesbrough.

Wildschut produced a man-of-the-match performance on his debut for the Teessiders, which was capped off with a brilliant goal in the 3-0 win at Rotherham United.

The former Heerenveen winger has had to be patient for his chance to impress, but while his performance caught the eye of many inside the New York Stadium, Friend revealed the 23-year-old has been impressing for some time.

“Yanic has been raring to go and he showed that with a great performance and a great goal,” the left-back said.

“He’s a big character and a good player as well. The manager wanted to make sure he was right before he came in and it was probably the right move, because he’s pulled out a performance like that in training.

“He’s showed everyone what he can do. He’s been working hard in training and that’s why he’s got his chance. The manager always goes by that rule and I’m really pleased for him. His finish was superb.”

Patrick Bamford put Boro ahead in the eighth minute before Wildschut hit an unstoppable drive past Adam Collin ten minutes later.

Lee Tomlin rounded off the scoring in the 87th minute, but Karanka’s men could have won by more after the Millers had Jordan Bowery sent off in the first half.

It’s always a help when you have a man advantage," Friend said. "Sometimes ten men can spur a team on a bit and they really went for after half time.

“They put two up front and went for it. They tried to make it as hard as they could for us, but I think we just had that extra bit of quality.

“In the first half it could have been a lot more. Kike had a couple of good chances but I think we finished the game off quite professionally.”