Troy Parrott's time in the Netherlands is going from good to even better as he scored four goals as AZ Alkmaar made history last night in the Eredivisie.
The Irishman has impressed since making the move to AZ from Tottenham over the summer after a successful loan spell at Excelsior Rotterdam, despite failing to score in his first three outings.
However that changed last night as he got on the scoresheet four times as AZ beat Heerenveen 9-1 and made history in doing so, recording their biggest ever victory in the Eredivisie.
AZ got the scoring underway after only four minutes before Heerenveen equalised soon after but Troy Parrott got his first goal for AZ a few minutes later to restore the lead.
It stayed 2-1 heading into halftime but AZ came out of the blocks firing in the second with Parrott scoring his second, third and fourth goal within 11 minutes of the second half starting to put AZ 5-1 up. The scoring didn't stop there as a succession of goals late on gave Alkmaar the history making win.
Speaking with ESPN after the match Parrott spoke about finally breaking his goalless streak.
Obviously for me as a striker it's disappointing not to score in the previous games because I always want to score goals. But I don't stress over these things, it's normal, this is football you can't play every game perfect. I understand this and I believe in my own ability and I believe the team that we've got here is a really good team and we will create chances and tonight that happened and I was there.
He then spoke about how great it was to make history at home in front of the fans.
I didn't know this, but it's a beautiful thing. To do this in front of all the fans here in our home stadium, it's a beautiful thing.
Having already become a fan favourite at the Dutch side, Parrott along with the rest of the squad went over to the ultras after the historic win where they serenaded the Dubliner with his own version of the famous "Will Grigg's on fire" chant.
🕺 𝑪𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝑩𝑰𝑮 𝑾𝑰𝑵 #AZ #azhee #TheFutureIsOurs pic.twitter.com/RE1wtW7PPd
— AZ (@AZAlkmaar) September 14, 2024
The massive win means AZ remain unbeaten to start the Eredivisie season and are only second place behind PSV Eindhoven.
With Ajax going through a rebuild after their tumultuous campaign last season and Feyenoord having to replace Arne Slot after he departed for Liverpool, there's a chance for another side to sneak into the Champions League spots and AZ could be that team with an in-form Parrott leading the lines.
It's great to see Parrott back in goalscoring form and hopefully it can be replicated in a green jersey soon.
