Defensive talent has to be coupled with strong minds
WITH last Saturday's game against Exeter frustratingly falling foul of the weather, I had the chance to take a look at the Under-16s and some of what will be next year's first-year scholars in a mixed 18s and 16s game on the artificial surface at All Saints Academy.
Rather surprisingly the game ended 0-0 after 75 minutes of play – quite unheard of in these sort of games.
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I will put this down to the excellent defending and goalkeeping as opposed to the poor finishing.
Particularly impressive that day was centre-half or full-back Callum Craddock from Hereford, who was drafted into the team for the League Cup game against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday, where again he performed impressively in an undeserved 2-0 defeat.
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Callum is a physically strong player who gives no quarter and shows a fine range of passes with both feet. He partnered Spencer Hamilton and the two made a good pairing, which bodes well for next season.
The Rovers game saw us change slightly with two up top, as Bobbie Dale and Lewis Morana both had injuries, and playing a diamond (narrow four) in midfield.
We started well and were the better team for 20 minutes, with Zack Kotwica and Zach Jones causing problems up front.
But two goals in a minute saw us rocked for ten minutes when once again we began to dominate the game without any reward.
We stressed to the boys that they made hard work of this.
It's critical after conceding to focus even more and not concede again, which we did.
Of course, it is disappointing to go behind in any game, but to let another one in straightaway is pretty suicidal.
But the performance was excellent and we really took the game to an older Rovers side in the second half and on another occasion could have got something from the game.
This week has also seen two of the second year lads go out on a work experience loan.
Michael Gonzalo has gone to Chippenham Town under the stewardship of Nathan Rudge and Kieran Thomas has gone to Cinderford with a view to going to Worcester imminently too.
Both boys need to go and play and experience men's football to further enhance their development quicker over an open-ended period of time.
This will be something that we'll look to continue in the future and as a staff we feel this will no doubt toughen and sharpen the boys up, away from youth football. We wish Mike and Kieran good luck and I'm sure they'll come back better players from this.
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