Dave Wilkes with reaction to the Bury game
Youth team coach Dave Wilkes gave us his reaction to the weekend home defeat at the hands of Bury.
“It was a disappointing result but there were a lot of positives for the lads to take from this one, and that’s very pleasing,” he said.
“Bury scored first after 13 minutes and that came when we gave their player too much room to move in. Having said that, he took it really well from the edge of the box and it was a great finish.”
“It was fairly even after that in terms of possession but we conceded from a set piece just after the half hour,” he continued. “On first viewing it looked to be poor defending and it’s one we want to have another look at when we do the match analysis.
“We got another good response after that and we pegged them back a little bit. We pulled one back when Danny Hodgson found a bit of space to work it into the box and Jason Blackburn finished it off at the far post.”
“We spoke to the lads at half time about keeping it going and we had the better of the play in the second half,” he said. “We caused them problems and we looked like we just needed another goal to really kick on.
“Danny [Hodgson] had one disallowed for offside from a rebound and Patrick Brough had a one-on-one which he will feel he should have done better with. Jason [Blackburn] went through on goal and popped one over the bar when he tried to lob the keeper and we had a couple of set pieces which were well saved.
“The pressure was all ours but we shot ourselves in the foot when James Scott hesitated and got caught with the ball in our half. He should have cleared it but he took a touch and that gifted them a goal when their striker ran away with it.”
“The pleasing thing was that the wind could have come out of the sails after that, but the lads kept pushing and trying to get back into it,” he told us. “Bury defended well, but in terms of spirit and performance I had no complaints at all.
“What we have to do is tidy up the individual mistakes and soft goals and we’ll be fine. It’s a game where I came away feeling quite upbeat, despite the result, because there was that effort and work rate which is vital in any team. When you have that you know you can sort the minor problems out.
“We are playing some decent football and we’re creating chances, so that platform is there for us. We’ll work hard and hopefully the areas which are hurting us as a team will start to come together.”
“They are feeling down with themselves at the moment because they lost a difficult Youth Cup game and the results have been hard to find recently,” he concluded. “I thought their legs might be heavy and some of the energy would be missing, but that wasn’t the case. They did what we asked of them and, like I say, if we can stop the errors then we’ll be a hard team to beat.”
United – Brass, Chisholm, Marshall, White, Dickson, Scott (Douglas 85), Hodgson, Moyes (Elliott 85), Blackburn, Hammell, Brough. Subs – Eccles, Rudd.
Next up for the young Blues is a trip to Accrington this weekend (Saturday 16 November, kick off 11am).
“That’s a game I hope the lads are looking forward to,” Wilkes said. “The FA Youth Cup defeat is still fresh in their minds so I hope they go there wanting to put one over on them. It’s different circumstances and it’ll be a completely different game, but I hope they go there determined to get a result.”
