United’s youth team recorded their first league win of the season at Creighton on Saturday as they battled their way to a 2-1 victory over Blackpool.
Speaking about the game, academy boss Eric Kinder said: “We were poor on Saturday, and I think we have to be honest and say we’ve got away with one.
“We found a way to win the game, which is good, but we didn’t pass the ball well or play to our shape. We worked on it all week and everybody seemed comfortable with it, but on Saturday they just went against everything we’d said.”
“It doesn’t matter what shape you play or what tactics you use, if you can’t pass the ball to the same colour shirt then you’ve got a problem,” he continued. “That was our issue on Saturday but, like I say, we found a way to win.
“The lads never stopped trying, it just seemed like every decision we made was wrong. We weren’t brave enough on the ball, we were just poor.”
Looking at the positives, he told us: “The goals were decent. It was a great corner from Charlie Watt for Jack Ellis to score from the corner, and the second one was a direct free kick from Keelan [Leslie] to bend it round the wall.
“When you asked me on Saturday for any positives it was hard, but after having the weekend to think over it the set pieces were superb, both defending and attacking.
“It’s always difficult to be objective just after full time in a game where you’ve come out of it feeling disappointed. I was wound up and upset about the way we’d played.
“We did have a goal disallowed as well, which we couldn’t understand, but I was maybe a bit harsh on them on Saturday.
“We had to change our shape at half-time because certain players weren’t doing their jobs. We had to go back to being more compact and I don’t like that. It isn’t the fault of the shape that we can’t pass the ball.”
“It’s good to get the points on the board after a hard start,” he said. “When you look at Preston and Fleetwood as your opening games, that’s tough, and we went into the Blackpool game knowing they’d be decent as well, which they were.
“I’m glad I not the Blackpool coach because he’ll be scratching his head wondering how they didn’t win the game. They had a lot of very good chances.”
Next up for the Blues is another home game, this one against Accrington on Saturday morning.
“Accrington are a team we usually do well against but as the years have gone on they’ve got better,” he told us. “Season by season it all changes, so we’ll see how we get on this weekend.
“The lads will be prepared, as they always are, and we’ll take it from there.”
United: Robinson, Barnett, Kilsby, Leslie, Day, Walton, Taylor, Garvey, Fishburn, Ellis, Watt. Subs – Breeze, Simons.
Goals: Ellis (13), Leslie (72)
Bookings: Ellis (90)
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