Youth boss Eric Kinder spoke to us about last weekend’s victory over Acrington Stanley as he also looks forward to the visit of Salford City on Saturday.
“The Accrington game was moved to astro-turf, which isn’t ideal, but it’s good to get it done and played,” he said. “From the first five minutes we looked in control and we never looked in any danger, which was pleasing. I thought we put in a really good performance.
“It was 1-0 at half time but the game should have been over. We had enough chances to finish it off. It was the same recurring theme, I’m not going to keep going on about it because we know what the problem is in terms of us finishing chances.
“We dominated and I said to the lads at half time that they just needed to carry on playing like that. We scored two goals in the first eight minutes of the second half, so the game was over. They got one back in the 95th minute through a penalty, but the referee lost a little bit of control and their bench were on his back and arguing with him through the whole game.
“I turned around to Mark [Birch] with about ten minutes to go and said I wished we could blow up now because it was becoming boring. It was just a battle between their bench and the referee, and it spoiled the game.”
“We dominated the game from the first minute to the 94th minute,” he continued. “They had a little spell after we went 3-0 up, their subs made an impact on the game, but we worked our way back into it. We had 15 minutes where we really had to work hard to keep control, and once we got that back we closed the game out.
“On the goals, the first one came from a set play, when Kyle Soper got it over the line. Taylor [Charters] and Jamie [Armstrong] have got great delivery into the box and it’s been outstanding. It’s about time we started scoring more from set pieces, which we haven’t done since the Salford youth cup game.
“Elliott [Day] scored from the back post from another corner. He timed his movement right to get into the right position. The last goal was Liam Lightfoot with a header from inside the box and it’s pleasing to see different people across the team scoring the goals.”
With the lads enjoying a good run in the league, he told us: “Salford won’t come up here at the weekend and lie down. They’ll want to put the youth cup result right, so we’ll have a game on our hands.
“I’ve always said after Christmas and once you’re out of the youth cup, then the focus really switches to next year. The second years have really got to put their foot down now. They’ve got a new manager to impress, and whatever Steven [Pressley] thought of them doesn’t count any more.
“I’ve known Chris [Beech] for a long, long time, not personally, but from playing against his teams. I know how his teams play and how he wants his young players to behave. I’ve given them all the information they need, he’s a good manager for a youth team because of his background.
“It’s a really good appointment for the youth side of the club, and he’ll help it. I’m looking forward to working with him. Steven was brilliant and it’s never nice to see people get sacked. I had a good relationship with Steven, he helped me a lot and he was very interested in our players which is all you can ask for.
“When the manager changes you worry because we know some managers don’t care about the youth side of things – and that’s right across the country. Some managers think it’s very important, and I think Chris has been appointed because of that.”
United – Robinson, Barnes, Birch, Lightfoot (Steele 84), Wilson, Day, Armstrong (Rooks 77), Walton, Soper (Henderson 46), Charters (Leslie 81), Bell. Sub – Simons.
Goals - Soper, Day, Lightfoot
