Young Terriers resume development programme with first match of 2021
- Huddersfield Town Under-17s continue development working on the ‘Terriers Identity’
- Conor Falls on target twice for Young Terriers
- New Under-17 Coach George Danaher pleased with the performance and mentality of his players
Huddersfield Town’s Under-17s returned to their development programme with their first match of the New Year, displaying a good fighting mentality despite defeat to Lincoln City.
The Young Terriers have been covering the ‘Terriers Identity’ since resuming training in 2021, and showed their good attitude against a strong opponent with their attacking play and desire to win the ball.
In the first half Lincoln took the lead on two separate occasions, however the Under-17s fought back both times, drawing level with two goals from Striker Conor Falls.
The first was teed up by Michael Stone, who beat his marker on the right-hand side before delivering a pinpoint cross to Falls to tap in.
Falls’ second came after a clinical team press allowed the striker to steal the ball from the City ‘keeper and place it into an empty net.
The visitors may have scored twice in the second half, but on the whole, George Danaher, who was taking charge of his first match since being named the new Lead Coach of the Under-17s, was pleased with the way his side faced up to the challenge.
“I thought the performance was excellent.
“The first game back after Christmas can always be difficult, but I thought the boys represented themselves well, there was some fantastic individual performances, we controlled and dominated the game and created some good opportunities.
“Like any game there’s loads of learning points, Lincoln are a very good, physical side and that was one of the main aims of the game - to match them or better them in that aspect - and I feel we did that.”
Danaher’s main positives were the timings and movements of the players in attack, as well as their hunger to hunt down the ball and make life difficult for their opponents.
“Attacking wise, in possession we had some great moments, the timings and the movements some of the players were making were great, especially for the goals.
“Another main positive was the mentality to win the ball, winning our duels. Lincoln being physical made this tough, but even with the mix of tall players, small players that we’ve got it’s about the mentality to want to take the ball off the opponent. For example Michael Stone, who’s one of the smaller players, was fantastic in the duels against bigger players and that’s excellent.
“What’s great about our programme is that we’re playing against boys older than our lads, so the mentality and physical side of the game is a real challenge, and they pulled through that really well today.”
One area he feels the group can learn from the match is their concentration, something Danaher and the coaching staff will continue to reinforce moving forwards.
“As the game goes on concentration is key, so it was a bit of a chess match in terms of who was going to lose theirs first. We work on that a lot in training, and as coaches we’re constantly reinforcing that, so moving on that’s something we could have been a little better on and it’s something we’ll review.”
Next up for the youngsters is the Youth Alliance Cup Quarter-Final on Saturday (16 January 2021). The Young Terriers host Walsall at Canalside and Danaher is relishing the opportunity to continue working on the ‘Terriers Identity’ and mentality side of the game with the group.
“We’re looking forward to Saturday, it’s a cup game so again we’ll focus on the mentality to go out there and win matches, so it’ll be an exciting one.”
Town’s Under-17 team (4-3-3)
Michael Roxburgh; Jeremy Stewart (Robson Shipley, 84’), David Adewoju, Josh Okpolokpo, Michael Stone; Ernaldo Krasniqi, Sonny Whittingham, Brodie Spencer (Darnel Baxter-Alleyne, 41’); Donay O’Brien-Brady, Conor Falls, Evander Grubb (Andre Edionhon, 84’)
Scorer
Conor Falls 23’, 36’
Final score
Huddersfield Town Under-17s 2-4 Lincoln City
