Youth boss on the 1-0 win last weekend
Head of youth Eric Kinder gave us his reaction to the 1-0 win over Bury last weekend.
“It was good to get back to winning ways in the league because we’ve had a few upsets over the last few weeks.
“The result was better than the performance. I wasn’t happy with the performance, especially in the second half, because I thought we played too slow.
“We had three or four openings at the start of the game where, if we’d have taken our chances, we probably would have been out of sight by half time. But we didn’t take the chances and we allowed them to gradually get back into the game.
“We scored at a great time which was just before half time. Kyle Dempsey had an opening but his shot ricocheted back to Alex Salmon, and he pushed it into space. He kept his composure and bent it round the keeper to score a terrific goal.
“We went into half time ahead and we thought we would kick on from there, but the second half became a scrappy game. We didn’t get going and in the end I felt that they probably could have got something out of the game when they shouldn’t really have stood a chance. Jordan [Parker] made a decent save for us as they grew in confidence and they hit the outside of the post late on.
“We didn’t move the ball around quickly enough and we lost our shape too easily, and it was too sloppy at times. I’ve told the lads that they need to set their standards a bit higher because that type of performance isn’t acceptable. Overall we’ll take the result but the performance has got to be better.
“I think we’ve struggled our way through rather than played good football recently, particularly in the league and the alliance cup. We’ve won two, but we’ve lost two important games and we’re going through a bit of a sticky period. We’re not playing as well as we should be with the players we’ve got and we need to start getting back to where we were at the end of September.
“However, we got a clean sheet and we haven’t had too many of those this season. It was something that was very much needed because we’ve conceded far too many goals when you consider that we have a back five which is made up of second year players. We need to carry that on now.
“We’re decent going forward and we’ve got some really forward thinking players. What Kyle [Dempsey] doesn’t give us defensively he gives us so much going forward. Alex [Salmon] likes dropping into the hole and we tried something different on Saturday by basically not playing with a centre forward. We allowed those to lads to switch as the situation suited and it worked in fits and starts.
“It didn’t work as well in the second half because they both got caught in the same position, so that’s something we need to work on. If we get it right it will give sides a problem when we have two players swapping positions.
“I thought Patrick [Brough] looked a little bit better than he had done in the past few games. He made a good run in the first half and that shows what he can do. Connor [Thompson] is going through a bit of a tricky period at the moment. Tom [Berwick] and Jack [Lynch] don’t drop their performances and they’re very consistent in what they do.
“Going forward with a front six is always good to see and I think we’ll always score goals. We just leave ourselves so wide open at the back because we haven’t really got a defensive midfielder in the side, so we’re always going to be suspect to being caught on the break. That happened in this game but we got away with it.”
United – Parker, Gwinnutt, Chisholm, Morse, Minor, Thomson (Dixon 66), Berwick, Lynch, Brough, Dempsey, Salmon. Subs – Brass, Peel, McEvoy, Clarey.
Bury – Dibble, Toth (Potter 26), Cook, Brown (Dickinson 62), Clarke, Rouine, Thornton, Bickett, Dudley, Walker (Prickett 53), Pratt. Subs – Williams, Willis.
Goal – Salmon (43) – Kyle Dempsey did well as he rode two challenges on the edge of the area before breaking into the box. His shot was well saved by Christian Dibble but Alex Salmon was on hand to take a touch before drilling it into the roof of the net from 17 yards.