Head of youth hoping cup run will give players confidence
Town’s youth team ran our 4-1 winners in their Academy Cup game on Saturday away to Burton Albion.It was a game where the lads took a number of the chances that they created to book their place in the next round of the cup. In recent games it has been a case of the performance being better than the result suggested but on Saturday the level of performance dropped a little but the chances were taken.
After the game head of youth Ian Dawes was pleased with a result against a good Burton side:”We did well and performed well and were better off the ball than we were on it at times.
“We played against a good side today and have performed better in recent games than we did today but we took four of our chances.
“We conceded a sloppy goal to make it 1-1 to allow Burton to get back into the game but we then took our chances and won comfortably in the end.”
The goal before half-time saw Town start the second half in front and a change of formation by Burton gave Town the chance to counter attack:”We scored at the right time in the first half to make it 2-1 to us at half-time and that helped.
“They changed their shape slightly and went more adventurous and that allowed us to counter attack and defender well.
“We scored a couple of goals on the break and could have had a couple of more goals towards the end, all in all a good result against a good side.”
Dawsey now hopes that the result will give the lads the confidence to go on string together a run of results:”We just need to turn our performances into results and hopefully we can kick on from this.
“Sometimes you just need to get a result and win a game when you don’t perform as well as you know you can.
“Hopefully it will give the lads the belief that they can go into any game and win it.”
With is being a cup game it may have been a case that the lads were more focused as it was a one off where the result was the be all and end all:”Maybe it gave them a little more focus as it was a one off game and they knew they had to win it to carry on in the competition as there are no second chances.
“It's a game where if you don’t get a result then you are out, maybe that meant they were a little more switched on in front of goal and when defending.”
“We seem very close to going on a run of game and we just need a few little tweaks to achieve that.
“Once we do that we are capable of winning, we have been the better side in most of the games we have played so far this season.”
It’s now about the lads reflecting on the result and learning for it, at youth level it’s all about development with the result not being the most important part but if they make the step up to first team level then the result becomes the important thing:”I say to the lads that all you see in the papers or programme is the result and no one will see how you have performed they see the result.
“The next level for the lads is first team football where results are the ultimate, performances are secondary.
“The lads need to learn how to win games and hopefully they will take this result today and use it to help them to achieve that.”
The squad included a number of the U16s squad with Ryan Goldson and George Hassell all looking to make the step up next season. Dawsey believes that including them in games such as Saturday’s will go some way to preparing for full-time football:”It was good for 16s and they need it as they aren’t far off the full-time football in six months and it will be here before they know it.
“They need to be equipped for it and its good when they get this experience and it will help.
“To be fair to George Hassell he’s come off the bench and played 10 minutes and has done well and is equipped now to do it again.”