Oldham Athletic’s youth team suffered defeat to high flying Lincoln City U18s on Friday afternoon as they fell to a 2-0 loss.
Interim academy manager Pete Wild was disappointed with the result, after two quick-fire goals sealed the youth team’s fate.
“It was a game we started really well in, we had a change of formation which we threw on them last minute to see how the lads could adapt.” He said.
“For the first 15 minutes it worked, and it was going really well.
“Lincoln changed their formation to match us up and we really struggled to deal with what they threw at us.
“They ended up scoring two really quick goals and that was it really.
“There wasn't much to shout about in the second half, but the damage was done in the first which we couldn't recover from.”
Although results do carry an important factor for Wild, he says that there are more important factors now starting to creep up in the academy department.
With many of the youth team players already been involved with the first team this season, professional contracts are on the horizon for some players as well as some of the U16s gaining scholarships.
“It's coming up to an interesting time for everyone.” Wild commented.
“We've just finished our recruitment on our new scholars, so that's all sorted and will be announced soon enough."
Wild also says it's interesting to see all the different stages of development his young players are currently at.
“We're coming up to make decisions on our second years to see who will go pro, so it's a really interesting time.
“The first years have now been with us for nine months, so they're now fully bedded into the squad
“Everybody is at different stages of development, so it'll be an interesting few weeks as we try to embed some of the U16s and maybe look at the best strategy for our second years as well as continuing to develop the first years.”
Next up for the youth team is a home game with Chesterfield U18 down at Chapel Road on Saturday, March 2 (12pm).