Win over Accrington but Dawsey wants better from his side
Town's youth team ran out 1-0 winners over Accrington Stanley in their latest Youth Development League game. In the game played at Shrewsbury Sports Village the difference between the two sides was a first half penalty from Joe Kenton which turned out to be the match winner.
On paper the result shows a win for Town but the performance wasn't the best that the youngsters have put in this season.
After the game Town's head of youth Ian Dawes was pleased with the clean sheet and the 3 points but wants to see better performances from his side:”It was probably the worst we've performed this season quality wise and decision making wise.
“That's a shame as the boys have trained really well all week, we've had games we've lost this season where we have performed better than we did today.
“The quality of passing and sharpness wasn't quite there today and we will need work on that.
“The only real positive from today is the clean sheet and the 3 points and that is important in their development.
“They need to learn to see off teams and that is one thing they managed to do today.
“We are not happy after today's game, ok it will go down in the paper that we won the game but as a group of staff and players we know that's not up to our standard.”
Games at this level are more about the development of the players and what positives can be taken from the game. Dawes and his coaches will go through the game with the players and see what they can learn from it:”We've got to look at the game again and see what we can take from it to help to improve them.
“To do that we need to pick out some positives, in the second half Accrington were pushing for an equaliser but we limited them to few chances and kept a clean sheet.
“What the players need to learn is that they will have off days, and some of our better players did have that today but they continued to work and try to do the right things off the ball.”
Dawes also spoke about the style of play he wants his players learn and build from the back:”I'm trying to teach them the hardest way to play football and that is to play out from the back.
“We could easily kick it long and work on second balls but I like players who are composed on the ball and are able to play through people.
“We've got no reason why we can't as we have players who are capable of doing that and when it works it looks great.”
Looking back at the game Town had a number of good chances to add to the lead but didn't take them. Chances fell for Ginnelly, Anderson, Wilson and Burton but it was the Accrington keeper who came out on top:”That is the story of our season, we create many chances in the game but we don't take them.
“If we look back to the Oldham game we had enough chances to win two games but we just haven't got that clinical edge at the moment.
“The players need to get a little bit more aggressive and a little bit more savy in front goal.
“It is a dog eat dog world and you need to take your chances when they come, we will play better teams and get less chances so we need to be able to take them.”