Maybe it was a birthday wish or the cake his mum made but Tommy Conway has not stopped scoring since hitting 20.
Conway celebrated the end of his teenage years five weeks ago by blowing out the candles and tucking into his favourite chocolate treat. Four days later the Bristol City striker scored twice against Coventry in the Carabao Cup and now has six goals and two assists.
“You need to ask my mum what was in that cake because she made it, I just ate it!” said Conway, smiling. “I feel I worked hard over the summer when I was away so I came back in as fit as I could be. I was flying in pre-season, scoring a couple of goals.
“I just knew when my chance came, I’d be ready for it. I didn’t expect it to be as early as this but I had confidence in myself that I could take it.”
Conway has won the EFL’s Young Player of the Month for August because of his red-hot form and admits the last few weeks have been mad.
“I can’t believe a month ago, I hadn’t scored one goal,” said Conway, who started at City’s academy aged seven. “Now here I am with six goals and two assists. It doesn’t sound real.”
Conway showed glimpses of his potential during a loan spell at Bath City in the National League South between September 2020 and January 2021 when he scored 11 times in 16 games.
His time at Bath came to an abrupt end when lockdown halted their season and City manager Nigel Pearson promoted him to the first team within weeks of taking over. He made his senior debut in April 2021 and netted his first City goal the following month.
“I was at Bath when I was 18 and I scored 11 goals in 16 games,” said Conway. “I got recalled because their season ended because of lockdown. I came back and trained with the Under-23s for about two weeks and continued scoring for them.
“The gaffer came in and in his first training session, I got called up to train with them. It was mad. I was supposed to be on a day off and I got a call at 7am to say I was training with the first team. Really since then I’ve been involved in the first team. It’s happened really quickly.”
City are fourth in the Championship, just three points behind leaders Sheffield United, and Wednesday night travel to Norwich who are second. Conway said: “I don’t see any reason why we can’t push for promotion whether it’s through the play-offs or automatic.
“We’re eight, nine unbeaten and that shows to everyone we’re not messing around. You can see a change from last year and I don’t think anyone should write us off. If we keep playing like we’re playing, I don’t see anyone having a comfortable game against us.”
Tommy Conway is EFL Young Player of the Month for August.
