Academy Thread 2024/2025

[Comrade 86]

12 hours ago, Crewton said:

The ref sounds like the one we had against Chorley in the FA Cup a few years ago : thought that youngsters should be able to match a men's team for physicality.

We did get bullied a bit and the ref gave us very little. That said, it was a disjointed performance and I'm not sure we got the selection or the tactics right. I often feel like the introduction of multiple senior players can actually lead to a lesser performance rather than improving it. As far as Jake Rooney is concerned, it's just a delight to see him back on the green stuff and hopefully now set for a prolonged period without significant injuries. We can hope, right? Barks and Thompson though, just seemed anonymous to me. Perhaps they're minding themselves, or were just using the game to help get fully match fit, but both got pulled very early and if it was a performance-related call, it was a fair one IMO. I'd expect the senior team lads to be setting the tone. I don't feel like they even came close to that. 

Tactically, we seemed to want to fire the ball at DJ all night. With his back to goal and two lumps clattering him every time, as GoC has pointed out, these are not circumstances in which he was ever likely to prosper. He and Allen seemed to be singled out for some 'special treatment' which I didn't really like at all, but I suppose it's a showcase game for the Aldershot firm. I don't expect them to hold back, but I don't expect the amount of snidey stuff we saw either. Their number 7 in particular was a proper arse all game. Thinks he's a big man, clearly, but I just thought he was embarrassing himself. 

In truth, it's often a lot harder in reality than on paper when kids play a senior squad, even of lowly standing. I'd hoped we'd go a bit better than we did, but it's probably not one to dwell on.