Youth boss on the weekend defeat
Head of Youth Eric Kinder spoke to us about the 2-0 away defeat at Preston North End last Saturday."This was a really, really good game of football.
"They set their stall out and you could tell when they scored their second goal on 87 minutes that the result meant a lot to them.
"It was a tight game and we should probably have been two or three up by the time we got to half time.
"We had two very good one-on-one situations for Kyle Dempsey and Pat Brough but I can't even be too critical of that. You could argue that we should score in those situations but their keeper had an excellent game.
"We do have to acknowledge that yet again we're looking back at four or five really good chances where we haven't managed to score. If we'd put two away we'd have won the game, it's as simple as that, but we didn't capitalise on our dominant spell.
"I told the lads at half time that it was going to come down to who made the first mistake after the break and little did I know that it would be us less than 60 seconds later.
"The ball was played in from the left hand side and Dale Minor found himself caught in no-man's land. He wasn't sure whether to play it or to let it run across his body and he ended up being mixed up between the two. It hit him and went into the back of the net and the incident rocked us for quite a while.
"It took us 15 minutes or so to get our composure back and it developed into the most entertaining half hour of the season so far after that.
"They wrapped it up with three minutes to go but that was at a time when we were pushing forward. We got caught a bit light at the back but we were either going to equalise or they were going to seal it. Unfortunately it went their way.
"It was one of those where I had to tell the group that we had lost a game in the right way. We'd played well and given it everything and you accept that.
"Preston are a decent side and they play some good football. I think they underestimated us when they came up here and there was no way that was going to happen again. They gave us a huge compliment when they said that we are the only team who have had a real go at beating them and we'll take that, because it means we're doing something right.
"I think the only problem we do have at the moment is the obvious one. We don't have a natural goal scorer. We've lost Alex [Salmon] to an ankle injury and all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that he will recover quickly.
"We have a host of important games coming up and it's something we need to address. If we keep playing well then we should be fine confidence wise, and then you are looking for one of your forwards to find that knack of finishing things off for us. If we get that then we'll have a decent side on our hands."
United - Parker, Gwinnutt (McEvoy 85), Staunch, Morse, Minor, Berwick, Lynch (Dixon 72), Dempsey, Thomson, Peel (Clarey 45), Brough. Subs - Brass.
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The youth team host Morecambe on Saturday morning with an 11am kick off at the Creighton Rugby Club football pitch.
Spectators are advised to arrive 15 minutes early to accommodate the early kick offs which sometimes accompany these games.
"It's a home game so we'll be looking to bounce back with a win if at all possible," Kinder said.
"We won't be taking anything for granted though and it'll be up to the lads to show that they can react positively, as they did after their last defeat.
"We're looking forward to it and hopefully we'll put on a decent performance."
Please note - there will be no commentary for this game due to an ongoing technical problem. This will be rectified ahead of the FA Youth Cup fixture at Crewe.