Under 18s coach Simon Wiles says that his side worked hard all the way through their 2-1 FA Youth Cup first round win over Carlisle United at Highbury.
Wiles’ side went ahead early on with Sam O’Halleron opening the scoring, thanks to a Kian Makepeace cross from the wing. Carlisle came back into the game shortly after but it was a brilliant second-half strike from Shayden Morris that sealed Town’s place in the second round of the Youth Cup.
The coach spoke after the win and here are some of the key quotes from his interview…
On the performance…
“I’m delighted with the result today. It was a tough game, I thought that in the first half we started brightly with loads of energy and scored a fantastic goal. We wanted to try and build on that but Carlisle started dominating the ball a little bit, which is how they got their equaliser. We addressed that at half-time, talked to them about taking more responsibilities with the opposition, getting the centre-halves to play a little bit higher and press their number 10, who was dropping in which allowed our midfielders to play a bit higher. In the second half, I thought the boys took the message on board and this helped us create a few chances, including one that Shayden [Morris] smashed it into the top corner, which was a fantastic strike. I am absolutely delighted with the performance and the way the boys played.”
On Sam O’Halleron’s opener…
“Sam [O'Halleron] over the last six weeks has been top drawer, His work rate, his energy and the way he holds up play shows that he’s been working hard in training, doing his ILP work which has come into the games now. He’s in a really good vein of form at the minute, we go on about crosses going into the box and players scoring headers, but Sam’s managed to find a little pocket of space in between the two centre-halves. It was a fantastic cross by Kian [Makepeace] and we are really pleased with the goal. We couldn’t have wished for a better start.”
On the positive play from the players…
“It was an overall fantastic performance, I thought there were some really fantastic performances out there. Ryan [Rydel] was top drawer, he was very comfortable, he was direct, he was getting forward and even hit the crossbar with one of his opportunities. It was good, and then you look to the bench where the three Northern Irish lads, who have just come back from the Euro qualifiers in Turkey, and they came on and impacted the play. They settled everything down and they started playing their football. In the last 20 minutes, I think we became a lot more comfortable, a little bit more patient on the ball and I thought we managed it well. Delighted for everybody involved, there was a lot of work put into the performance, with the management team, and we are delighted for the boys who ran their socks off tonight.”