Dave Wilkes on the Morecambe game
Youth coach Dave Wilkes gave us his reaction to the Youth Alliance Cup defeat t Morecambe at the weekend.
“It was a difficult pitch and tough conditions because the pitch wasn’t the best,” he said. “We found it hard to get our game going and we didn’t really create much in terms of chances in the first half.
“We had a few corners and Danny Hodgson went one against one and probably could have done better than he did.”
“They struggled to do anything in and around the penalty area as well but, to be fair, they opened us up well when they pounced on a poor pass from our defence. They finished it off and that gave them something to protect.”
“There were a few words at half time and we went a little bit more direct to try to take the poor playing surface out of the equation,” he told us. “We put big Jason Blackburn on up front and we changed our shape so that we could peg them back a bit more.
“We put them under quite a bit of pressure. We hit the bar and had a couple of shots which went just wide but, yet again, we just couldn’t score when we were on top. We got through them on a couple of occasions and their keeper made some very good saves, so it was very frustrating for everyone. It’s an obvious thing to say but if you don’t score you just don’t win games.”
“It is frustrating for the lads as well because they are playing quite well at home,” he said. “Away from home we seem to have a weakness where we just can’t find that final pass or finish. We’ll keep plugging away and hopefully it will come."
United – Eccles, Thomson (Scott 60), Marshall, White (Moyes 80), Douglas, Chisholm, Hodgson, Hammell, Gordon, Elliott (Blackburn 45), Brough. Subs – Fowler, Bradbury.
Next up for the youth team is their final game before the winter break, at Fleetwood on Saturday morning [kick off 11am].
“We have one more game before the lads break up for Christmas and hopefully we’ll get the win,” he said. “It would be nice to break that away jinx so that we can send them all away with smiles on their faces.”