Won 3, lost 3 drawn 4 Another draw with a 1-1 against a decent Burnley Season not going as planned but in fairness we have some fresh young kids this season
Bit of a disappointing match. Burnley were a big strong team. We weren't. Some decent performances, some average, some dire. A lot of effort with little to show for it. Bloody freezing too! We were playing what appears to be a 3-1-3-3 system again. Can't say that it was particularly effective. A very scrappy match, undeserving of the good turnout. We seem to be obsessed with wingers & crossing. Me & the bloke I was sitting beside paid particular attention to this. We had 2 wingers on each wing, but all 4 made the same mistakes, which was holding on to the ball too long, failing to take the opportunities for early crosses, and the most infuriating - just belting the ball hopefully into the box. Whatever happened to the old adage 'find a man'? So we just peppered the penalty box with blind crosses, and the ball was mostly cleared. Just like the first team. It would be nice if someone taught them how to look up before crossing. Well, at least some of the time! Positives? Good 'keeper. Sound defence in the first half with Cooper playing. Difference in class was noticeable. Second half, McCalmont dropped back from DM to take his place. Puzzling, when Davis was coming on as LWB. You'd expect him to come on into a 3. Have to say that he did very well as LWB, and I wonder if he might become more of a threat to Alioski & Douglas as the season progresses. But then, I thought that about Pearce! McCalmont did ok, actually, but he seemed really vertically challenged in between Casey & Struijk. Struijk stupidly gave away a penalty by leaning too hard on their player, who sensibly dropped to the floor under the contact. Hopefully he'll learn from it. Did very well apart from this mistake. Take a note of Casey's name, btw. He's a dark horse. Doing exceptionally well in his 1st year in the u23s. Edmondson played very well, as usual, but I still don't think he's ready to move up yet. Roberts looked the part when he came on in the second half. Rather worryingly, he wore a black tape support thingy on his right knee, and towards the end pulled his sock over that knee (and not the other one! Warming it?). Pretty sure I detected him dragging his leg too. A worry. Bogusz was disappointing as the #10 in the first half. Roberts took over there in the second half & Bogusz dropped back to DM, where he was just as ineffective. Hopefully it's just a bad day at the office. Stevens tried too hard. Too much unnecessary aggression in his game. It's like he's been told to be more aggressive, but fails to understand that this does not mean kicking everyone you can or simply smashing into them at every opportunity. I may be exaggerating slightly, but not too much. I'll forgive him as he's obviously rusty. Similarly rusty was Shackleton at RWB. Nothing really worked too well for him. He'll come good. No doubt in my mind. Gotts replaced him second half & did ok. Not his best performance, but solid & dependable. Clarke. Was he subbed at half time because he was rubbish, or because he was being saved? Don't care, personally. Another typical Jack performance. Which is in occasional 15 second bursts. Which won't get him first team game time. Fortunately. McCarron played LWB 1st half, & moved up to LW when Davis took the LWB berth. A bit patchy. Seems to be taking his time to settle in to our style for me. There's a good player in there somewhere, but we need to see more of it. So, overall, I think there was an even match of positives & negatives. We were playing more players out of position than we did last season, and I guess this is them getting developed. Which is a good thing. I prefer this to the u23s winning all the time (although it's nice, tbh). Far more important. Whilst I know it's good for the first team that we got a chance to play our returning injured, I think it halts our u23s development. Guess there's a counter argument that the u23s could develop more with an experience 1st-teamer playing alongside them. Jury's out. )
7pm tonight away at the Rees which is being played in Alfreton. Trees are top of the league and we are mid table finding our mojo still
Well disappointing getting smashed 7-1 probably by this seasons champions. They loved it because they hate Leeds but remember folks bulk of this seasons team are U18 players 16 and 17yo. All part of development and learning.
First win in 6 games and a deserved win. Edmondson and Stevens on the scoresheet. Hosannah makes a welcome return and gets 45 minutes in as does Douglas and Pablo. Gotts and Berardi also get 45 in the 2nd half
2-1 win means we have just done 3 on the bounce and Edmondson scored again thats 3 in 3 and Boguzs cracked a great free kick into the top corner. Sheff Utd a decent team but over powered by this Leeds team filled with U18s who are coming along nicely climbing the table now with games in hand
