Beck goal earns away victory
United manager Graham Kavanagh gave us his reaction to the 1-0 reserve team away win at Blackburn on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a very good all-round work out for the lads, which I’m very pleased about,” he said. “We got some valuable pitch time for some lads who haven’t played for a while and they’ll have got huge benefit from it because it was against a very competitive team.
“Blackburn had a real mix of quality players and they always approach it the right way. Paul Robinson was back from injury and in goal for them, and it does add something when you’re facing players like that.”
“We had a good spell in the first half, and Mark Beck got us a goal, and we were made to work hard to keep our lead,” he told us. “You do always like to get a result, whatever game you play in, but the most important thing from my point of view was to see players like Chris Chantler, Danny Livesey, Mark Beck, Brad Potts, Lewis Guy and Craig Roddan put the effort in to try to make a claim and improve their own situation.
“It’s vital that the intensity of training or reserve games is high because that benefits the whole group. They’ve done a job today and, even though there are always areas to improve, that has made it a very worthwhile trip.”
“We had Ben Sampayo with us again for this one,” he said. “It’s the second time we’ve been able to take a look at him because he came along to play for us at Bolton back in October [that game ended as a 1-1 draw]. He’s a right back who has been with Chelsea and Brighton and he’s had two decent games for us. He’s a good lad who approaches things properly but it’s not one we will pursue at this moment in time.”
“We’ve got another game next week when we play Morecambe in a cup fixture [Central League Cup],” he concluded. “That’s another chance for players to show everybody they’re ready to go, so it’s one we will look to do properly.
“I’ve said this before, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the message has to be that what we do today will not be good enough tomorrow. We have to set those standards, whether we're training, playing bounce games or playing for points on a Saturday. That will be the message again ahead of next week’s game.”
United squad – Brass, Sampayo, McSweeney, Livesey, Chantler, Roddan, Potts, Lynch, Brough, Beck, Guy, Eccles, Chisholm, Hammell [team and sub timings will be confirmed on Wednesday morning].
Next up for the United reserve team – Central League Cup, Carlisle United v Morecambe, Brunton Park, Wednesday 18 December, kick off 1pm
