Shrewsbury Town

Team: Callum Burton, Louis Jarman, Tom Astley, George Carpenter (Ryan Hickman 45), Nathan Millis, Jack Parrish, Sam Brown (Ethan Jones 65), Sam Molyneux, Matty Jones, Matt Evans, Scott Ryan (Jeff Watkins 45) Subs not used: Alex Ashton, Jack Richards

With a lot of our youth team due to be involved in the reserve team match at Morecambe on Monday evening, and a few injuries, we had the opportunity to involve some of our under-16’s into this youth team game. From our under-16 squad we had 5 starting and one more came off the bench.

Our start to the game was extremely sloppy and it only took 3 minutes for us to fall behind as our indecision and hesitation cost us quickly. A long ball over the top was not dealt with by defence or goalkeeper and as the loose ball tempted Callum Burton out of his goal the striker reached the ball first and rounded him before rolling the ball into an empty net. Luckily this prompted us to wake up and we went on to compete well in the first period playing the better football and our under-16’s gained more and more confidence as the half wore on. Some of our passing in the first half was extremely pleasing as we moved the ball quickly inside the Fleetwood half. Our most productive moment came after Nathan Millis won the ball on the half way line and we played forwards quickly through Matty Evans and Scott Ryan, with Ryan unable to work a shooting opportunity he cleverly found Matty Jones at the back post with a clipped pass but Jones half volley struck the outside of the post.

Unfortunately we didn’t re-appear in the second half and we conceded early on from a corner. The looping header evading Callum Burton and went in off the post. It was a similar second half performance that we saw at Blackpool last week. We failed to show the necessary character to keep playing when dealt with a setback. We are looking for leaders in the group to emerge and for the braver ones to keep receiving the ball and play regardless of the score line.  Hopefully this will be a part of the learning curve for our under-16’s.

The youth team are next in action on Saturday 24th August when they take on Accrington Stanley at the Shrewsbury Sports Village, kick-off 11am.