The 20-year-old Chelsea forward, on loan at Pride Park, unlocked an evenly matched contest between the two promotion hopefuls with a moment of expert finishing 16 minutes after his introduction as a substitute.
“What pleases me is that we’ve brought in Patrick and we now know that he can come on and change a game or start a game," said McClaren, whose side sit fourth in the Championship table, five points behind QPR in second place.
Patrick Bamford
Born Grantham
Date of birth 5 Sept 1993
Clubs Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, MK Dons (loan), Derby County (loan)
Senior debut: Nottm Forest v Cardiff 31.11.11
International Republic of Ireland U18, England U18, U19, U21
"It builds that confidence in the squad and its good for all the players and keeps everyone on their toes,”
McClaren introduced Bamford to the right of his attack on the hour mark and was rewarded as the home debutant nonchalantly guided Jamie Ward’s lay-off past Seagulls’ goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak with a curling left-footed strike from 18 yards.
It was a moment of clinical composure from the former Nottingham Forest youngster who is enjoying a productive season as a striker for rent. The Young Lion registered 17 goals in 30 games on loan at MK Dons in the first half of the season.
McClaren went on to stress the importance of changing the momentum of tightly contested games by adopting a positive approach to substitutions, admitting the game was going “nowhere” before he shuffled his pack with three changes.
“Jeff Hendrick came on and gave us momentum in midfield and then had to go to right back allowing Conor Sammon to come on. It allowed us to be a little bit more direct and our strikers fed off the scraps which Patrick Bamford did.”
“It’s not about 11 players it’s about the squad and we had fourteen players who contributed to that win,” added McClaren.
