Jon Worthington’s side to take a lot from the latest Youth Alliance game
- Difficult Mansfield test for Town’s Under-18 side
- Jon Worthington’s youngsters learn a lot from the game
- Luke Daley scored first goal in Huddersfield Town colours
Huddersfield Town’s Under-18s can use the latest Youth Alliance game against Mansfield as a learning opportunity.
Jon Worthington’s youngsters continued to focus on chance creation and came across some stumbling blocks when they faced Mansfield last Saturday.
The Young Terriers showed their style in the opening stages of the game but were unable to work to their targets in the second half.
Jon Worthington explained that the game was a good lesson for his youngsters.
“In the first half we tried to do the right thing and we did play some good football at times.
“In the second half we failed to implement our style and after that the game slipped away from us really, but that’s when the players have got to step up to the challenge. They’ve got to be clever and solve problems on the pitch.
“It’s a good learning curve, I think the youngsters have learnt that the opposing team won’t just let you play and implement your style.
“It’s important that you stick to your principles, stick to your style of play, and stick to the objectives that we were trying to achieve in the game.
“You’ve got to respect the opposition. Sometimes they make it difficult for you to play and you can’t create chances, but then, what you’ve got to do, is keep playing the style we want to play, which with us is dominating possession and building through the thirds of the pitch.
“Once you move away from that it becomes a problem for us as that’s not the way that we can play to our strengths, and then the game slips away from us.”
From a defensive point of view, Town’s U17 Coach wasn’t too worried about the goals they conceded.
“I’m not too concerned (with the two goals), we always try to play out from the back.
“Our beliefs as a club are to create players who can be progressive with the ball. The result of this will be players making mistakes, but in the long-terms we will see the benefits.”
The Young Terriers will now move onto the final phase of building an attack in training, before looking to improve on Saturday’s performance by applying all of the skills they have acquired next weekend when they travel to Scunthorpe United in the Youth Alliance League.
“I’ll have a good look at the game this weekend and review it with the players. This will allow them to learn from watching the game back.
“We’ll stick to our structure, move onto finishing the attack, review the creation we’ve been working on and be positive for the next match.”
Town’s U18s vs Mansfield Town (4-3-3)
Giosue Bellagambi; Luke Daley, Nassim Kherbouche, Josh Okpolokpo, Taylor Annakin; Ernaldo Krasniqi (Exauce Baruc, 46'), Tom Bell (Andre Edionhon, 62’), Ben Midgley ©; Luke Billam, Robson Shipley, Darnel Baxter-Alleyne
Unused substitute
Michael Roxburgh
Final score
Huddersfield Town Under-18s 1-2 Mansfield Town Under-18s
Scorer
Luke Daley 26’
