The Sky Blues Under-23s left Bramall Lane empty handed yesterday afternoon, suffering a 3-2 defeat in the Professional Development League.
City were reduced to ten-men early on in the game and despite coming back from behind twice during the game; they were unable to do it for a third time.
Reflecting on his side’s performance, Under-23s Head Coach Luke Tisdale saw positives from defeat, but was ultimately left disappointed coming away with nothing to show for the spirited performance.
“There are a lot of positives to take, but ultimately the best form of development is to win games, had we got a draw yesterday we would have classed that as a victory. So, for all our hard work and endeavour and character that we showed we don’t get anything for it.
“The players can look back with a little bit of pride for the performance and how deep they dug but ultimately, we give three four goals away which has cost us the game again.
“So yes, we are disappointed to lose the game obviously, it was a game that we were in until the red card which had a massive impact on us, but we showed lots of character and resilience to bounce back and just ran out of stream at the end.”
As Luke mentioned, City were reduced to ten man with the scores still level at 0-0 on 22 minutes.
Morgan Williams was shown a straight red card, in his first start for the Under-23s in 2021, a decision which ultimately looked harsh.
However, City didn’t let the deficit affect them and they continued to battle in the game, drawing level twice after going behind.
“I thought we played really well with ten men.
“The first ten minutes with 11 v 11 I thought we struggled to really get a foothold in the game, and then we settled down a bit into a rhythm and got our possession game going again and we looked like we got on top.
“We created a really good chance that we couldn’t take and just as we started to dominate the red card hit us which then obviously changes everything.
“The reaction to the red cars was excellent, we played some really good football, and our two goals were really high quality which was an excellent aspect of the game and we were really pleased with that.
“Equally we still have to learn that the goals that we gave away were preventable regardless of if we have ten men or not.”
The change in circumstances with Morgan being sent off meant City had to change shape and formation, moving from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-1.
“The changed allowed us to block off midfield areas, which meant that Wesley Jobello and Will Bapaga had to move to wing-backs which isn’t their natural position.
“They both worked outstandingly hard up and down the pitch. We felt we could overload the back third three v two with their two centre forwards and then still give us that dominance in midfield, which meant that pressure was put on Dave Bremang to be the one to occupy the whole of their back-line which he done well in the second half.”
City travel back to Sheffield next week, as they take on Wednesday on Monday 15th Match.