Eric Kinder on the victory against Perth
Eric Kinder gave us his reaction to what was a comfortable game against Perth Academy on Saturday.
"We played an out-and-out under 16 team but we expected them to be stronger than they were," he said.
"We didn't play any of our full time lads because we gave the first years the weekend off. The lads enjoyed it but we were so much better than them.
"I think it finished 14-0 and we only played about 38 minutes of the second half, but they were a nice bunch of people with some good staff.
"We had a chat after the game and I can understand what they're trying to do over there. They've been on a tour over here and they have links with Burnley; I think they use them as a satellite club over in Perth."
"The game wasn't what I wanted but it was nice to meet them and see how they did things," he admitted. "It did give me a chance to look at a few under 15s and I was quite impressed with them."
The youth team close of their season with a traditional final friendly against a Cumberland U18 side on Saturday, at Creighton.
"Our match against the Cumberland U18's is how we've ended the season for the last three years," he said. "We'll use the squad that we'll have next season, including the new lads.
"A lot of the Cumberland U18 players will have been with us at some point so they'll come with a point to prove. They'll have an older team than us because we'll be using the lads for next year."
On the recent awards, he added: "Jack [Lynch] deserved the most improved player because he's got better and better since the day he got here. He has an amazing desire to succeed and he's a brilliant lad. He's very quite around the club but he's one of the most polite people you'll ever meet.
"He's been in and around the first team since the day he came into the club and I think you can really tell. He's put in a lot of work over the last couple of years and he fully deserves his professional contract.
"You can't really argue with Alex [Salmon] being player of the season because he's scored 30 goals overall and scored four goals in four different games. He's technically very good and he has a good attitude towards playing, but that's all he wants to do.
"He hasn't enjoyed the other side of being a youth team player and he's been a handful for two years, but we've got through it. He's made his debut and if he can keep his feet on the ground he'll have a very bright future.
"It was nice for me to get the Derek Lacey award. It was good of Radio Cumbria to recognise the work that we've done at youth level and it's been an incredible season for us.
"We've had six first team debuts and two international debuts and it will be hard to beat that. I'd like to say thank you to the people at Radio Cumbria for acknowledging the work we've done."
