Steve delighted to be unbeaten ahead of New Year
Steve Eyre credited his players as Town’s Development Squad ran out 2-1 victors over Sheffield United at Canalside this afternoon, maintaining their unbeaten league record.
Eyre’s side top the Professional Development League Two by 10 points, having won all of their seven games since the opening day draw at Nottingham Forest.
Steve said: “I’m obviously delighted to be unbeaten for the turn of the year, which sits us clear at the top of the league.
“Winning is part of development, but equal to that is working hard all week and trying to get players into the first team. I feel we are in a healthy place.
“The only blemish was a credible draw at Nottingham Forest, where we only had ten men, but I thought we could have won there too. We’ve got a smashing set of young footballers at the Club who love playing and we train all week for moments like today.”
Town controlled the opening moments of the game, but went behind through Febian Brandy’s strike.
He said: “I thought we were the best team throughout. It was quite an eerie opening and we had all of the possession, but misplaced a pass and allowed them to score, which was against the grain.”
“We re-organised at half time, we changed the formation and we asked for a little bit more from the lads - and literally from the whistle in the second half we were in the ascendancy.”
Town equalised in the second half through Manchester City loanee Harry Bunn and then took the lead through Paul Mullin from a Jordan Sinnott corner.
“We’ve done a lot of work on a couple of things from set plays, and to score from one gives us all a lift. We try and get them ready for our First Team, which is the main goal, but we try to get them playing well and win along the way.
“You only have to look at our Academy and how they are flourishing at the moment, and their next stage is to do so in the development squad. We’ve already got young lads coming into the First Team, so the pathway is there.
“We cherish coming in every day and working hard, working for opportunities to move onwards and upwards through the Club.”
Town’s Under-188s are also top of the league, in what has so far been an incredibly successful campaign for the young squads.
“We know the under 18s are in fantastic form guided by Mark Lillis, Frankie Bunn and Tony Carss . We work very closely together and we hope to be able to guide them through to our First Team."
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