Popped along to the swamp Carrington this morning to watch the under 16's play and the academy side were also playing.
Where I was stood by the touchline for the 16's there actually was a swamp just behind me!!
Anyway from the little bit I saw of the academy side they were pretty poor and with a few minutes to go were 4 nil down. They looked pretty poor to me and talking with somebody who watches them regularly it isn't a great surprise. He reckoned we have been poor at that particular age group for a while and nothing has been done about it. Strong comments and maybe compared to the recent few years this years crop of under 18's is not at the same level. Certainly we have had some real quality in the past few years and it got me wondering , if we are weak this year , whether the blame will be put on the fact that Jim Cassell isn't in charge anymore? Clearly not the reason if that age group have been weak all along.
In the game I watched more the score ended 2.2 and overall was probably a fair result. They were on top for quite a while in the first half without looking overly dangerous but we got more and more into it.Twice we went ahead and then gave away soft equalisers. Goood to watch the youngsters for a change with the only bad note being our right fullback who was carried off with a suspected broken leg.