Dave Wilkes on the Fleetwood game
We spoke to youth team coach Dave Wilkes following the disappointing defeat to Fleetwood last weekend.
"It was a disappointing result but what we have to do is make sure we learn from it," he said. "We have to remember that they are still learning their trade and we will get frustrating days like these."
"We scored the first goal from a corner and we created quite a few good chances," he explained. "We had a strong foothold in the game and at half time we looked like the side who would go on to win it.
"About ten minutes into the second half we had a throw in. Harvey Moyes lost possession when he received it and he slipped over. That left us a bit vulnerable, they took advantage of that and they managed to score."
"That gave them a bit of momentum," he added. "They were closing us down better which made it harder for us to play. They got another break just after that, for their second goal, and that put them on top.
"To be fair, we worked hard and things evened out a bit. We managed to pull one back when Jason Blackburn worked hard to get onto something. It fell for Jack and he went past his defender to finish things off well.
"I thought we would build on that second goal but they scored and took the initiative again. We applied a lot of pressure towards the end and we had a lot of corners, but we couldn't capitalise on that. It became frustrating for us but, like I say, it's all part of the learning curve."
"The lads know what we need to work on and there's a little bit of naivety in the group that we need to look at," he told us. "We can hopefully do that on Thursday and Friday to try and get rid of the mistakes which are costing us at the moment."
"We played well in the first half so I don't think there was any sort of complacency from the lads," he insisted. "It was disappointing that we couldn't hold on because if we were a little bit stronger at the back we probably would have made things a bit more difficult for Fleetwood. We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit and that's something we want to iron out.
"We aren't looking for excuses but we've got Frankie Wallace, Jordan Marshall, Connor Thomson and Kyle Dempsey out through injury and they're all a big miss for us. We've played very well when we've had those players available so we're looking forward to getting them back.
"We don't have a very big squad so we're down to the bare bones a little bit. However, we have to deal with that and the first years are having to learn very quickly. All of the lads want to learn and develop themselves as players so I'm sure they'll carry on getting better."
United: Brass, Chisholm, Brough, Moyes (Douglas 66), Dixon, Scott, Hodgson, Hammell, Blackburn, White, Elliott. Subs: Eccles, Pearson, Rudd.
The youth team travel to face Blackpool on Saturday (kick off 10.30am) for their latest league fixture with coach Dave Wilkes looking for a reaction to last weekend's defeat.
"Blackpool are a good side and we'll have to go there in the right frame of mind," he said. "We've had a real mixed bag of results so far this season and we're the same as any team - we just want to try and find a bit of consistency.
"It is a young group, so we have to take things a step at a time, but we'll keep putting our demands on them in the hope that they will get stronger and stronger. Games like this are good for them and it's one we are looking forward to."
