Under 18s coach Simon Wiles thinks that his side gave a good account for themselves in their narrow 3-2 loss to Bury in the FA Youth Cup second round.
Wiles’ side had a perfect start as Carl Johnston put them ahead just 80 seconds into the game, but a three-goal comeback from the home side Bury pushed Town further back until their stoppage-time penalty, scored by Ryan Rydel, brought the score back to 3-2.
The coach spoke after the game and here are some of the key quotes…
On the result…
“I thought they gave a really good account for themselves. A couple of decisions here-and-there that I thought we would have had a bit more joy with, but it was just one of those nights. We couldn’t have wished for better start, Shaydon [Morris] coming off the line, he’s got his head up and made a great pass through to CJ [Carl Johnston] and then it was a very composed finish from him. I thought the manner of the which the lads played, we tried to move the ball quickly, create opportunities and at times I thought we did that. We got the goal really early on in the game, and then it’s just about the management side of the game as you’ve gone up so early. I’m frustrated for the boys, they’re absolutely gutted. They put in a good shift and took the messages on board but unfortunately on another night, we could’ve got the luck we needed tonight.”
On the start to the second half…
“We were pleased at half-time, we were still in the game and there were some real positives from the lads in the game, we just need to tidy things up a little bit. We looked at the bench and saw that we had players that could come on and impact the game but then they score two minutes into the half and the game plan goes out the window. To be fair, when we did make the substitutions, the manner in which the lads kept on playing, the way we want to play, we had a couple of opportunities we could have done better with but unfortunately, they grabbed their third through a penalty, but even then, the boys kept on going and we got a penalty of our own to make it 3-2. I’m frustrated but really proud of the players from where they’ve come.”
On the mentality of the squad…
“Even at 2-1 with ten minutes to go, we were still creating opportunities and we just thought if we keep it like this, and stay solid at the back, we might get one of those balls to fall into the right area and we would have been back into the game and take it to extra-time but sadly, that didn’t happen. From a development point of view, I’m really pleased that the lads have had this experience. They’ve got to learn from this, realise how the changing room is hurting in there and to be resilient and come back from that. I’m sure the players will do that and come to training next week as we look forward to Morecambe on Saturday.”