iwasthere2012 wrote:Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Didn't see the games( gutted) but a most notable poiny was the age difference between the 2 teams. As I understand it our average age was 18 and a bit compared to their 21 +. At those ages that's a massive difference and it does serve to underline the quality we have coming through.
Speaking to a red before the game and he fely City were bound to win as they have so many players out on loan which weakens their team so much at this age group. I decided not to follow that one through as I would guess we have twice as many elible under 23's on loan at least and much better ones as well.
Like I said earlier Doug, I only caught about 35 minutes of it.
We were a man up and 1-2 to the good.
United, to their credit, did still try to get back in the game but we were comfortable enough and dangerous on the break.
We still have a bit of a panic in defence at times, similar to the first team.
Noticeable was the absence of diving into challenges, but this also led to standing off a bit too much around the box.
A minor complaint, and Angus looked very assured in goal. He dealt with anything I saw, comfortably.
We hit them quite a few times on the break and Sancho in particular, was a menace as was Fernandes.
Diaz was buzzing but as you say above, the United team were older and bigger.
Quite a few times he worked magic to get himself into the box only to be leveraged off the ball. He is very tricky though and a delight to watch. Took his goal beautifully placing it calmly into the bottom left after a run and pull back by Fernandes.
Ricketts-Buckley looked sharp also.
Sancho is only 16 though and for me each time I see him I can't help feeling that if this guy doesn't make it with us, then we are failing somewhere at Academy level.
If anyone on here saw the whole game I'd love to hear an opinion. Is the half hour or so I saw a true reflection of the full ninety, because I really do think for a bunch of 16-19 year olds to be second in the U23 league is a brilliant achievement. Probably a truer reflection of the talent we have than our U14-16's hammering teams.