Youth team boss pleased with Midland Youth Cup victory...
YOUTH Team Boss, Neil Woods was quick to praise his players’ competitive edge following their 3-0 victory over Ilkeston Town on Tuesday evening.Goals from Cameron Peters, Tobias Hayles-Docherty and Jordan Sangha was enough to ease the young Saddlers through to the next round of the Midland Youth Cup just days after suffering a late league defeat to Bury.
“After Saturdays disappointing result, I was really pleased with the boys approach, competitiveness and quality of football,” explained Woods.
“We controlled the game from early stages and our quality never dropped throughout the ninety minutes.
“One thing that was questionable for first 45 minutes against Bury was our competitiveness. We know they can play football and if the game becomes a pure footballing contest, we’ll hold out own against anyone.
“But in competitive games, at times we’ve been left wanting. Individually and collectively we were a lot better against Ilkeston Town in fight situations and regaining possession, which was really pleasing.
“In terms of goals the opener was a great move. Cameron [Peters] is on a good run of form in front of goal at the moment and it epitomised his individual performance. The build up probably involved ten to fifteen passes, which is great to see.
“The second was the pick of the bunch. It was a real team goal; a flowing move involving a clever back heel and Callum [Cockerill-Mollett] puts Tobias [Hayles-Docherty] in to finish it off.
“On a pitch that wasn’t as smooth as we’d have liked it was great to see the players express themselves like that in the right end of the pitch at the right time in the game.
“Then we put the game to bed with a third and I thought we showed great composure on the edge of the box first of all. We didn’t panic and Jordan’s [Sangha] shot has taken a deflection and wrong footed the goalkeeper.
“The thing that pleased me most was the player’s competitiveness on a testing surface and the way we responded to the disappointment at the weekend.
STARTING XI: Jezeph, Maddox, Cockerill-Mollett, Sangha, J.Smith, Roberts, Oliver, Shorrock, Peters, Kouhyar, Hayles-Docherty
SUBS: Cela (75’ Peters), Caswell, Kendrick (75’ Maddox), Vann, R.Smith