IRON midfielder Michael O'Connor was praised for his quality after being thrown in at the deep end during yesterday's 1-1 draw at Wycombe Wanderers.

The opening match of the League One campaign was the Northern Irishman's first 90-minute stint of the summer after a pre-season dogged by a knee injury.

Prior to starting the clash at Adams Park, O'Connor had played just 15 minutes of a 5-0 friendly defeat against Barnsley a week earlier.

But manager Alan Knill was delighted with his contribution.

"Even in the 15 minutes he played against Barnsley, he was excellent. He can pass the ball around the pitch," said the Iron boss.

"He worked really hard throughout the week and we just said 'you're going to have to get fit in the games'. He was okay with that.

"At 70 minutes he was looking over at me, but I was looking away because I didn't want him to come off.

"I wanted him to get a 90, because mentally that's good for him. He's done that now, so he knows that he can last."

O'Connor is likely to sit out Tuesday's Carling Cup first round trip to Accrington Stanley, to enable him time to recover.

"Legs are in bits after playin full game," he put on his Twitter feed two and a half hours after the full-time whistle.

Knill believes the pace of yesterday's game though, which was frantic during the final half hour, was exactly the sort of test O'Connor needed.

"It was a bit open second half, but I know Gary (Wycombe boss Gary Waddock) pretty well and his teams are like my teams - they want to go forward and get the ball wide," said the United manager.

"It was a real good test for Mickey and the good thing is he's got a real good player with him in Togs (Sam Togwell) that sees danger a lot and will help him out a bit."