ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED
Eric Kinder discusses the 2-1 Reserve win over Preston:
"We are all delighted with the performance tonight. The pleasing thing is that it isn't just the performance, but the attitude of the players was absolutely spot on.
We expect that from them, but the senior players have coached the young lads tonight, and they have beaten a side that is very hard to beat.
I'm absolutely delighted with the way the young boys have performed, I really am. As I say, that was backed up by a superb approach to the game from Kev Gall, Danny Carlton, Paul Arnison and Luke Joyce. When the youngsters see that, they respond to it.
I thought the sending off was disappointing, because I thought that the referee could have maybe used common sense, and probably just booked both players.
He said there were punches thrown, but I didn't see any. Then, with the changes that both sides had to make, I felt that we adapted better.
Matt Duffy had played at centre half in the Youth friendly, and we thought he was very good, so we played him there again tonight. I thought he was outstanding at centre half. When the sending off came we moved Jonny Blake from midfield to right back, which is a position he knows.
Matt Duffy moved out to left back, which is his favoured position, and Paul Arnison dropped in at centre half. Stephen Hindmarch moved in to central midfield, and he is very happy there, so when we were 10 v 10 the changes affected them more than us. That has to be full credit to our lads, who are now beginning to learn how to play different positions.
After us taking the lead, their equaliser was a little bit unfortunate. Young Matt Duffy got a little bit tired, and got caught on the inside, and then it was a bit of a scramble. It will go down as an Arnison own goal, but there wasn't that much that he could do about it.
It was another terrific move at the end from us though, involving Gary Madine and Stephen Hindmarch, and Kev Gall got the goal that his all round effort and enthusiasm deserved. Gary Madine did very well to create it, and he can be a very clever footballer at times.
So, overall the manager was delighted. Greg Abbott says it's the best performance in a Reserve team that he's seen since he's been here, and he thoroughly enjoyed being part of it.
I've said all along that we are going to have to wait for the young players to start showing their potential. I think now, coming to the end of October, they are starting to show us what they can really do.
Kev Gall has given the manager something to think about, and so has Danny Carlton. His attitude in Reserve football is fantastic and I think they, along with Paul Arnison, were fantastic tonight.
We thoroughly deserved to win. It was, overall, a fantastic performance from everybody involved.
We found ourselves with a few injuries this morning. The Youth team played a friendly on Tuesday, and I didn't realise that Matt Duffy and Jonny Blake were going to have to play 90 minutes tonight after playing 90 minutes yesterday.
Tom Aldred got an injury, so he had to miss the game. Dan Wordsworth has come in and marked Carroll who, reputedly, is worth millions and is a very good player. Dan Wordsworth just continues to impress. Neale McDermott got a bit of a knock in training yesterday, and we didn't think he was right. Jeff Smith wasn't right from his foot injury, so we left him out as well. Shaun Vipond is suspended, so with Jeff Smith and Neale McDermott pulling out, that's why some of the kids had to play two sets of 90 minutes.
They will have an easy day tomorrow and then will be ready for Saturday."
