Our Under-19s secured a draw against Grimsby Town away from home

- Grimsby Town 2-2 Huddersfield Town U19s
- Hazeem Bakre and Dan Isaac scored for the Young Terriers
- U19s Coach Oran Thompson reviewed the fixture

Our Under-19s travelled to Grimsby Town on Saturday morning for their EFL Youth Alliance League fixture, which finished 2-2 after goals from Hazeem Bakre and Danny Isaac.

Working hard, the Young Terriers secured a valuable point away from home in the EFL Youth Alliance League, with the home side equalising late on to deny them what would have been a deserved victory.

Alongside Michael Tonge, Oran Thompson coaches our Under-19 and this is what he had to say about the game:

"Our game plan was to go mid fight zone, that's what we've been working on recently in that part of the programme.

"So, we set up in the first half in that mid fight zone shapeand the lads did really well with it as they limited Grimsby to very few chances, especially in the first half.

"We managed to get two goals on the break through Hazeem and Danny, which was good. It gave the lads confidence in playing that way and then you could see in the second half that the game got a little bit scrappy with the pitch conditions.

"The lads had to adapt to the conditions and make decisions considering the pitch but they stuck together through it, then a little bit of tiredness kicked in - that is something they work on as they get older, they figure out the best decisions to make when they get tired.

"They'll go through periods in their career when they're not playing on perfect pitches all the time, they have to adapt to it, and they did that really well on Saturday."

Speaking about how the Under-19 group have been getting on so far this season, Thomson continued:

"We focus on individual work, so for them to get have a good performance and get a good result it was beneficial, but within that we focus on the individuals and there was some very good performances.

"With us having a smaller group this season, it just means they get more time and more individual help. Sometimes they might find it difficult that they're not playing with the same players every game, but as long as we're consistent with what we're teaching then they can take the most from that and that's the most important thing."

Our U19s are back in action on Tuesday 28 November when we travel to Carlisle United for a 1pm kick-off in the Youth Alliance League. Keep up-to-date with all things Academy on our dedicated social media channels!

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