If anyone was thinking of going along to today's Academy team game, there's been a change of venue and kick off time - it's now at the Vale, kick off 1 o clock according to Twitter.
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If anyone was thinking of going along to today's Academy team game, there's been a change of venue and kick off time - it's now at the Vale, kick off 1 o clock according to Twitter.
A really hard fought 1-0 win for the Under 18s this afternoon over a strong Millwall team - Sion Spence scored his twenty first goal of the season in all competitions to settle the game early in the second half and so it's now five wins in five games for the Academy team.
The large majority of today's team will be in the side which travels to North Wales to face Airbus UK in the Semi Finals of the Welsh Youth Cup next month - Connahs Quay host Swansea in the other Semi with both of them to be played on 18 March.
5 wins in a row is impressive at any level. We could do with the first team going on a similar run. We're not exactly blessed with goal scoring midfielders do you think Spence is knocking on the door of our first team squad yet Bob?
I doubt it. There's definitely a deliberate policy to keep Under 18 team players at that level this season, whereas this time last season Spence, and a few others in the Academy side, were appearing for the Development team quite regularly. Maybe if our season tails off and we have a few meaningless games come April and May like we did last year we may see someone like Spence given a game, but I'd be very surprised if any of our youngsters made a first team debut if we're still challenging for a top six finish.
Guess it makes sense, especially given the expected return of midfielders Gunners and Bryson soon. Not sure I agree with holding back prospects from the Academy Team into the Development squad though. To my mind it would do them good to see how they cope, especially with the increased physicality the opposition would provide.
I'd rather see Spence on the bench than the likes of Halford
My report on today's match.
http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/
I mentioned earlier in the thread that today's Development team match at Leckwith was a one o clock kick off, but it's not - the Development team Twitter site is now saying it'll start at two.
City won this afternoon's game 2-0 with first half goals by Ogo Obl and Kadeem Harris. Craig Bryson played about seventy minutes, Matt Connolly forty five and Kadeem went off with about ten minutes - Max Johnstone of Man United, brother of Villa keeper Sam, was in goals for City.
Hope Max shares his brothers attributes. The best goalkeeping performance I have seen all season was that of Sam Johstone. Although we scored 3 on the day, if it wasn't for his brilliance we'd have scored at least 6. So is Max on trial, not a name I have seen previously?
Yes. He did ok too. Difficult day for keepers, they played the game on the pitch next to the big blue tenty thing and the wind was howling around there but both keepers coped well. Coventry were poor and we could've scored double figures but Johnstone was tested a few times and had to work for his clean sheet.
Kadeem Harris showed, yet again, that he's far too good for that level. Wasteful in front of goal but he looked sharp. Warnock and Blackwell were there today, I'm sure they'd have been happy with the performances of both Harris and Bryson. Mark Harris was busy up front for us and I thought Obi was decent too, made an effort to link up more today and looked better for it.
Thanks for that report fella. Both the Development and Academy are stringing victories together now which is good to see. Encouraging news on the return from injury of both Kadeem and Bryson although with just 48 hours before the Boro game I doubt either will get a place on the bench yet especially as both are returning from long term injuries.
If the finishing had been better, there could have been an avalanche of goals today but at least it was entertaining until the closing stages. If it had been rubbish I'd have gone home early because it was bloody freezing down there - experienced players like Connolly, Bryson and Stuart Beavon of Coventry must have found it difficult to work up any enthusiasm.
Surprised to find Coventry in third place in our league, they were very poor I thought. We're up to 5th now and starting to look like a strong, well organised squad after a shambolic early season that was testing all of our patience. The proof of the pudding, as always, will be whether some of these lads can push on to the first team but it feels like it's going in the right direction for now.
Good to see Warnock and Blackwell there. I heard Warnock talking about you and TOBW at one point. He said you're the brains of the outfit but TOBW takes all the glory. Sounded about right.
Here's the table.
https://www.flashscores.co.uk/footba...gue/standings/
If anyone wants to read TOBW's report, it's under the quiz here.
http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/
Funny, the Slumdog says much the same as well - I did use one of his lines once.
Thanks for putting that table on here - all of a sudden we're in the run in for a Play Off place.
The Under 18s have a chance as well - they've a few matches in hand;-
http://www.betstudy.com/soccer-stats...ment-league-2/
A very good weekend for the first team, but the Development and Academy sides have both lost their recent unbeaten records in the past couple of days - the Under 18s were well beaten at Watford 3-0 on Saturday and the Development team lost by a late goal to nil at bottom of the table Bristol City this afternoon just when they were getting into Play Off contention.
Jahvan Davison-Miller played for us again today, he's popped up a couple of times this season. Danny Rowe was the other trialist. Disappointing result today, strong enough team out. No Kadeem Harris or Bryson, I assume they're joining up with the first team squad now. Rhys Healey played for us and Gary O'Neil for them.
I know these kids are far too young to affect our first team but having read how the academy has "been badly run for years" blah blah blah I just want to comment how well some of the younger kids have been doing of late.
On Sunday the younger groups played Swansea in year of birth games (the European system)
2008 won 14-13
2007 won 11-1
2006 won 6-2
2005 won 8-0
The week before the under 14s went to arsenal and won 4-1 against a team featuring the next wonder kid Omari Hutchinson.
The same day the u11s beat Arsenal 9-1 a result that is unheard of by any team against Arsenal.
It's a shame City didn't start playing till 12.15. They were 2-0 down by then and never looked like getting back into it, finished 3-0 but it could've been worse. A bit like some of the early season games today, five trialists playing and a few square pegs in round holes which made it chaotic to the point where it didn't seem fair on anyone (spectators included).
Trialist Corey Watson, who looks like a midfielder, started at centre back so centre half Connor Young started in centre mid. Once Watson had been bullied off the ball for their second goal they swapped places but the damage had been done. Another trialist, Michael Gyasi, couldn't get in the game on the right wing and both him and Watson were subbed at half time. Gyasi might have been happier in centre mid but Mark Harris was there, making no impression at all having looked good up front last week. Ogo Obi played up front this week and made no impression himself. Only in the last ten minutes did all our players find positions they looked comfortable with and we played some nice stuff then with Harris coming alive having moved forward.
I don't want to pre-empt TOBW's blog too much but there's definitely a big change in the style of play at that level. The playing out from the back and short passing moves have largely gone, there's a recognisable similarity between their style of play and the first team's which is logical I suppose. The problem today (not helped by a strong wind) was that the quick early balls from the back were terrible, Obi tried to make so many leads from off the shoulder of the last defender but no one could put the ball into the twenty yards of space ahead of him. Not that he did much when he got the ball but it's very hard for the front three to make any impact when the service is so poor.
Blackburn were excellent but it was a bad day at the office today. Paul McKay looked good at the back again, Abbruzzese and Coxe stuck at it but there was a lack of quality all round.
I'm not going to do a blog piece on yesterdays game because I'm going to be pretty busy all day.
I'm always not sure whether people say "excellent post" because they genuinely think it is very good or because they agree with it, so I'll just say that you've covered virtually everything I would have said there right down to Watson's struggles at centreback, Blackburn being good and your opinion on the style of play these days from the Under 23s.
Like you, I thought both full backs did pretty well under trying circumstances and I left thinking that if the pair of them do not even seem to be considered for the first team when we have five senior players in their position out with injuries, when will they ever be? If they are not in Neil Warnock's plans at all at this time in their development, is there any point in keeping them here?
I don't have the team sheet to hand at the moment, so I can't give you his name, but the trialist number eight quite impressed me - I hope he gets another chance with us.
Tom Walters. Did ok but it was a shocking pass from him that led to their third goal. Hard to judge anyone on yesterday's game though.
I agree with you about the full backs. I've said before that the Mansfield home game was the chance to give one of them a game but Warnock brought Bennett back in (even though the plan was to rest him) and said he had no choice. I was speculating yesterday how many of those two plus Veale, Harris and Waite will still be here next season. One, two at the most I reckon, we'll see. Ollie Byrne has already gone, to Blackburn. No sign of Meite lately. They obviously haven't finished the rebuilding at that level yet.
How do the under-18s set up these days, by the way? Any sign of them being made to play in a more direct style?
If there is such a thing as a six pointer at Development team level, then today's match with Ipswich is probably it - City were in the running for the end of season Play Offs in the last table I saw, but Ipswich were holding second spot behind runaway leaders Palace. According to the club website, there has been a change to the advertised venue - the match is down to take place at the Vale at 2 o clock.
Sorry, I didn't see this until I went to post that message about today's game.
No, I can't say I've noticed a change of approach from the Under 18s, they still seek to build from the back, but it almost seems like a separate project from their seniors this season given that there appears to be no progression from it into the Development side, let alone the first team.
2-1 win today which keeps us in the hunt for the 2nd play off spot. Here's the table, around eight games to go. Tough games coming up though.
https://www.flashscores.co.uk/footba...gue/standings/
Started with a kind of 4-1-4-1 formation today with Keenan Patten sitting and Mark Harris, Rhys Healey, Sion Spence and Jamie Ward behind Ogo Obi. Healey took an early knock which he tried to play through but only lasted 20 minutes. There was talk of it being a dead leg which seemed to interest Jamie Ward.
'Rhys, you're going off with a dead leg? You're soft as shit'
Unfortunately, Rhys wasn't in the mood to get on Ward's banter bus and went straight back to the changing room.
We were 2-0 up at half time, a nice shot on the turn from Mark Harris and a penalty from Obi. Nearly impossible to play any football in a gale force wind but we deserved the lead and were holding on comfortably enough until Jamie Veale, just back from injury, got hurt by a wild tackle which put us down to 10 men. We let in a goal near the end but held on.
Nice to see Patten and Spence there. Tough for Spence to make an impression but he did some good things, Obi should've scored from his set-up in the first half. Patten looked very tidy. Ward lasted around an hour before coming off, worked hard and seemed fit enough.
I was going to post this a few days ago but didn't. Does anyone actually think that these youngsters will get anywhere near the first team? We see these kind of articles every year and none of them seem to make any impression. Or is it more of WalesOnline posting articles for the sake of it?
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/...rdiff-14340162