Under-18s coach on victory over Dale
Ian Dawes was pleased to see Shrewsbury Town’s youth team edge out Rochdale in a 5-4 thriller at Stainton Park on Saturday – but warned against complacency in the future.Town’s Under-18s held on for the victory after being 5-2 up against the Dale before James Hooper, who had scored the hosts’ first two goals, pulled another two back late on to set up a tense finish.
And Dawes, head of academy coaching, insists his side must become better mentally in order to develop as a team.
“In the end, it’s 5-4 and three points against a side that are very good,” said Dawes.
“In every match in development football, there’s positives and negatives to take away from the game.
“If you look at the positive side, we were very good going forward, created a lot of chances and could have scored more than five in the end.
“I thought we were the better side in the first half. Rochdale had the first ten minutes of the second half and the last 15 minutes of the second half, but other than that I thought we were the better team.
“Defensively, although it sounds strange (having conceded four), on the whole we defended pretty well.
“We have lapses of concentration at crucial times in the game and conceded another two penalties, although I didn’t think they were penalties.
“Then we conceded two in injury time and we seem to concede at crucial times in the game when mentally we need to be tougher.”