Young Terriers reach the end of six-week coaching programme
- Town’s new-look Under-17 side begins league programme
- Game against Doncaster marks completion of first six weeks at the Club
- Academy Manager Leigh Bromby ‘really pleased’ with progress of the group
Huddersfield Town’s new-look Under-17 group completed its first six weeks at the Club with the opening game of the new Youth Alliance season at home to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday morning.
The Young Terriers – a new group recruited into the Club after the summer changes to the Academy system – have been working hard under the tutelage of Academy Manager Leigh Bromby to learn the basics of the ‘Terriers Identity’.
Reviewing Saturday’s game, Leigh believes Doncaster provided his group with an ideal test to see how they stuck to their principles.
“We’ve just finished our six-week pre-season training period, which focused on the elements that are most important to the First Team; fitness, reactive pressure and playing on the pitch.
“On Saturday, we didn’t play on the pitch well in the first-half as Doncaster pressed us high as a unit. However, I was really pleased to see the players continue to try and play their football. They understand and stayed committed to the idea, which is really encouraging.
“I will never criticise or shout at them for making mistakes if they’re trying to get on the ball and play through the thirds, as that’s what we’re asking of them. Sometimes we will give the ball away, but we’ll give them all the support we can.
“We improved a lot in the second-half. Our organisation and fight zone were good, and we were much better with the ball. We could still be better, but I’m really pleased with where the players are right now.
⚽️ @sampeplowx showing why you should always follow-up on penalties in scoring for #htafc Under-17s in this weekend's draw with @DRFC_Academy!
— HTAFC Academy (@htafcacademy) August 13, 2018
#YoungTerriers (DTS) pic.twitter.com/t8Gv3TPxVt
“In many ways, it was a positive start. The game was perfect as Doncaster’s players were older and therefore physically better than us, which is what we wanted.”
The young players were back to work in training at PPG Canalside on Monday and Leigh explained that the emphasis of the coaching programme will now change.
“We’ll now review how we’ve progressed in that first six-week period to look at what we’ve done well and what we need to improve upon.
“We’ll change the focus of our coaching during the next six-week period. We want to begin controlling possession a bit more and to play more football in the opposition half.
“We’ll constantly revisit what we’ve learned too. When you’re 16 years old, it would be easy to revert to type if you make mistakes, but we want the players to stick to the fundamentals of the ‘Terriers Identity’.
“Our mistakes didn’t get punished as they did against Manchester City in the week, which you’d expect. Our players need both types of games to learn.”
Town’s Under-17 group is back in Youth Alliance action on Saturday with a game at Rotherham United, whilst the Under-19 team plays against Conwy Borough’s First Team on Wednesday evening.
Town’s U17 team vs Doncaster Rovers (4-2-3-1)
Giosue Bellagambi; Sam Sharrock-Peplow, Nassim Kherbouche, Mustapha Olagunju, George Alfieri (Taylor Annakin, 46’); Jaheim Headley, Tom Bell; Remi Thompson (Jeffrey Oredein (trialist), 46’), Josh Austerfield (c), Andrew Ijiwole; Darnell Mintus
Unused subs
Mohammed Diaby, Seth Meeson
Final score
Huddersfield Town 1-1 Doncaster Rovers
Scorer
Sam Sharrock-Peplow, 69’
