Leigh Bromby provides U17 with different situations during pre-season
- Under-17s played AFC Emley’s First Team during pre-season
- First taste for youngsters of playing in front of a crowd
- Young Terriers’ second goal epitomised Terriers Identity
As pre-season continues for Town’s Under-17s, Academy Manager Leigh Bromby was keen to provide them with new tests and challenges to prepare for the 2018/19 campaign.
The youngsters, who came together for the first time at the start of the month, have been working on a number of different things during pre-season, alongside working with the Club’s Academy coaches to learn the basic fundamentals of the Terriers Identity.
The Young Terriers played non-league side AFC Emley in their third game of pre-season on Friday 27 July, a match that gave them a number of new challenges, something that Leigh Bromby believes will enhance their development.
“Playing against men was a test for them and playing in front of a crowd was something new for them as well.
“In the first half we saw that it took the lads a while to settle in to that, whereas in the second half they were used to it a lot more; it’s things like that they need to experience and go through.
“We made a couple of mistakes playing out from the back, trying to get used to how we want to play, which gave them two goals and the other was from a set piece, which was expected because it was 16 year-olds against a men’s team.
“You could see that AFC Emley was an organised side that plays in a good standard in non-league, so it was a really good test for them.”
It’s the mistakes that Town’s Academy Manager mentioned above that will help the youngsters progress, learning when they can play out from the back for example.
“We were playing on a pitch that was very different from the surfaces that they train on or play on, so they learnt how to manage the game. These are the things that they have to go through, making mistakes so they can learn.
“It was a great experience for us and one we will do again because we value putting the lads in these different situations.”
Another test for the youngsters was trying a 3-4-1-2 formation, which has been used to the First Team before.
Leigh Bromby explained that it was something that caused the youngsters some issues and that they will have to work on it in the future.
“We tried playing a three at the back for their experience, like the First Team have done, sticking with the same style of playing out from the back but it didn’t work for us; it’s something we have to look at.
“We will continue to look at testing them with this formation because the First Team use it at times and the young lads will need to know how to play in those positions.
“We were much better in the 4-2-3-1 formation, the Terriers style, because that’s a system they know, but it was good again to see how they adapted to a different challenge.”
In the second half – using the main First Team formation – Town’s Under-17s scored a superb goal that showed a genuine understanding of the Terriers Identity.
“Our second goal is exactly what we’ve been working on and the way we play – I mean you would’ve seen a similar goal for the First Team, in terms of how we played out and worked through the thirds,” explained Bromby.
“It was a nice goal to watch and it’ll be one that will fill them all with confidence as well.”
AFC Emley 3-2 Huddersfield Town Under-17s
Starting XI (3-4-1-2)
Giosue Bellagambi; Mustapha Olagunju, Nassim Kherbouche, Mohammed Diaby; Sam Sharrock-Peplow, Jaheim Headley, Seth Meeson, Andrew Ijiwole; Josh Austerfield; Darnell Mintus, Kian Harratt
Subs
Taylor Annakin, Ivanilson Da Silva (trialist), Remi Thompson, Ben Mills
