The Youth Team beat Accrington Stanley 5-2 in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup on Saturday and Head of Coaching Conor Marlin gave his thoughts on the game.
Marlin was pleased overall with the performance and he's relieved that lads were more clinical in front of goal.
“The performance was okay, and it was a poor pitch that we played on as well which slowed down the tempo to our play and we didn’t get into a good rhythm but saying that we ended up running out comfortable winners.
“We were much more clinical in the box this week and that was the biggest difference between this week and the last couple of weeks.”
Marlin claims he puts an expectation on the lads each week to help continue their development as they aim to get a professional contract.
“We’ve had a reasonable start to the season, the expectation that we put on the lads every week is that they have to win and they have to play a certain way because they are getting to that age where they are all playing for contracts to make it into the first team squad.
“The target is to win every week and we make no bones about that and that’s the reality of where they are at and I believe that we’ve got good players and we should be winning most weeks.”
Next for the Under-18s is a tough game against Preston North End on Saturday at Chapel Road (10:30am) as they look to build on their recent victory.
“This week will be a tougher test I’m sure as Preston North End are normally a very strong side and they’ve had a very good start to the season as well.
“In terms of putting on a performance we need to make sure we’re as good in both boxes and cut out a couple of sloppy bits of play in our own defensive third which cost us and a couple of lapses of concentration.
“We need to maintain the level of finishing and we were clinical that was the difference. We created chances in all of our games but on Saturday we scored five because we were much more ruthless in front of goal and now we’ve got the 'monkey off the back' if you like.
“Hopefully goals will flow and confidence is running through the squad in front of goal.”