Marcus Antonsson was glad to get off the mark in United colours over the weekend and hopes Saturday’s victory at Shamrock Rovers could signal the start of a blossoming strike partnership with Chris Wood.

Antonsson netted a brace in the 3-0 win at Tallaght Stadium, opening the scoring with a cool finish from inside the area after a driving run from Ronaldo Vieira, before heading home Charlie Taylor’s second-half cross to make it three.

Those goals came either side of a calmly dispatched penalty from Wood, who Antonsson is already enjoying linking up with in attack.

“I feel it’s getting better and better,” said our summer signing from Kalmar FF. “Chris is a good guy off the pitch and I fit in well with him.

“I think that partnership can be really good this season.

“The guys here are amazing – a really good group. They’ve helped me a lot and it’s been great so far.”

Antonsson played the opening hour of Saturday’s friendly after coming on for the final 30 minutes of last week’s pre-season opener away to Shelbourne, and the Swede is enjoying his return to action following last month’s switch from Kalmar FF.

“It’s always nice for a striker to score and it’s very nice when you get a clean sheet as well,” he said.

“It feels good to be back on the pitch. It was a couple of weeks ago when I played my last game and you feel that - even if it’s a small amount of time that you haven’t been playing games.

“It felt a lot better for me on Saturday and getting two goals as well is very good.

“We got a clean sheet and we have worked on a lot of our defensive play, so I think that was actually the most important thing.

“It’s a friendly game, we won 3-0 and I’m just happy that we’re improving.

“There isn’t a long time left now before the season starts. We’ve had two great weeks in Ireland.

“We’ve worked a lot on our defensive play and we can improve even more when we’re back in Leeds.

“I’m going to do everything I can – working hard every day – so I can make a good start in the league.”