Senior Professional Development Coach reviews latest win
- Frankie Bunn reviews U21 win at Leeds United
- Bunn pleased with first half showing
- Frank discusses last week's Spanish training camp
Huddersfield Town’s Senior Professional Development Coach Frankie Bunn praised the first-half performance of his Under-21 side after today’s 2-0 win at Leeds United.
The victory was a ninth in succession for the Club’s Development Squad and came courtesy of two goals in an excellent opening 45 minutes.
“I thought we were excellent in the first half. We could have been maybe three or four goals to the good,” Frankie told htafc.com post-match.
“We came out of the blocks really well, played out from the back and penetrated high up the field; our front play was very good. It should have been three or four goals at half time and I don’t think they troubled us much in the first half.”
Leeds improved in the second 45 minutes, but the Terriers showed different qualities in staying defensively robust.
Frankie continued: “We knew Leeds would come at us in the second half as I know their Manager, Mr Hart, quite well. I’m sure he would have voiced his displeasure at half time.
“They came out really strongly and it took us a while to settle back into the game; maybe 15 minutes to get our first proper pass.
They were very direct and it was messy and scrappy, but we competed. Sometimes you don’t get your own way in a football match over 90 minutes, but we dug in and defended OK at times.”
The defensive effort was all the more impressive given that Bunn’s side was without centre backs Fraser Horsfall (suspension) and Danny Kane (Ireland Under-19 duty), meaning that second year Academy scholar Jacob Hanson moved inside to centre back and Norwegian midfielder Sondre Tronstad featured at right back.
“I thought the likes of Jacob Hanson and Sondre Tronstad were very good. They made the right decisions and didn’t look out of place in the positions that they played,” Frankie explained.
“It was Ben Holmes’ first outing in a while and he looked OK as well, which tells you they have a little bit of knowledge about the game. That is good from a coaching point of view. It looks like things are sinking in.”
Nine of today’s starting XI spent last week at David Wagner’s Spanish First Team training camp and Bunn believes that is indicative that the new Head Coach will give youth a chance:
“There’s a great opportunity for young players at this club, it really is.
“They have been in the Head Coach’s eye for over a week now, so he’ll have an assessment on all of them. I think he was quite pleased with the standard whilst we were across there.
“I know the First Team players were impressed too, which was really pleasing. Footballers know footballers and the young lads coped really well; they didn’t look out of place.”
