Academy defender for the Young Terriers to put in a good performance
- Young Terriers face Oldham Athletic in the Youth Alliance Cup on Saturday
- Taylor Annakin discusses the upcoming tie
- 17-year-old on returning from his injury setback
Huddersfield Town Under-18 youngster Taylor Annakin believes that the Young Terriers have to be focused on putting in a good all-round performance against Oldham Athletic this weekend.
Town’s Under-18s face Oldham Athletic on Saturday in the Youth Alliance Cup – a competition where their focus turns to performance and results.
In their opening Cup game, Town’s Under-18s beat Accrington Stanley 4-2 and Yorkshire-born Annakin believes that everyone has a “must win” attitude going into the tie.
“When we’re in the league, we look at different things such as the finish phase, the creative phase and so on. This game is performance based, we’ve got to go and win, that’s it, no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’.
“You just look to win, we still play 100% in both league and cup games, but the match on Saturday is a must win, so we’ll go with the strongest team we’ve got.
“A few Under-18s will be coming down like Josh (Austerfield), Sam (Sharrock-Peplow) and Mustafa (Olagunju) and we’ll do a good job.
“We have to put everything that we’ve learnt since we came here into the game.
“We want to put it all together, that’s what we did at Accrington and we’ll look to do again this weekend.”
The young defender has been at Town for just over a year and joined at Under-17 level.
He went through all the experiences that the current Under-17 players are going through now and he believes his experience will help them.
“Last year, even though the results didn’t show it, I think we did very well, and I think we’ve got better.
“The results did matter, but it wasn’t the main focus, that’s why when we’re behind in games like that I just tell everyone to calm down and keep on going, like we have done.
“It helps the Under-17s as well, it rubs off on them. I’ve just told them to go on with it, work hard, react under pressure and if we concede, keep your head up.”
Annakin recently recovered from an injury setback, but he hasn’t let that halt his development.
“I’ve come back from an injury, I did my MCL and now I’ve come back into the team and everything is going well. The physios have been fantastic with me,” said the youngster.
“I’ve been working very hard, I thought I was going to be out for a long time like three to six months, but I came back in six weeks.
“I’ve got to be at my best now, I’ve got to keep on showing consistency like I have been doing in these games and hopefully I can push on to the older group and keep on going.”
Town’s Under-17s will take on Oldham Athletic on Saturday in the U18 Youth Alliance Cup.
The match will take place at PPG Canalside and will kick-off at 11am. Huddersfield Town supporters can watch the game for free.
