Speaking after Saturday’s game at Wigan, Assistant PDP coach Chay Thompson thought City’s under 18s side put in their best performance of the season despite coming away from the game with defeat.
Thompson’s side found themselves 2-0 up at half time but went on to lose 3-2 in the North West with the result ending the young Sky Blues unbeaten start to the season.
“I thought it was our best performance of the season so far, we went 2-0 up and we were in complete control of the game, and we had chances to go 3/4/5-0 up and didn’t quite take the chances and from a lapse of concentration they scored on the counter-attack to make it 2-1.” Said Thompson.
“Then the two goals that come after that were really disappointing from our point of view and there is a lot to learn from that.
“In terms of result we are disappointed but in terms of the performance it was probably our best performance of the season so far against a good Wigan side.
“The players were deflated after the game because they know they should have come out of the game with three points never mind none, but they are in a good place, we just need to keep encouraging them and doing the right things.
“They will learn a lot of lessons from that and in terms of the performance and what they are giving there is a lot of positives to take.
“I think we are getting better each game and I think if we keep preforming at those levels, we’ll start winning games of football there is no doubt.”
Thompson was keen to stress that the under 18s have had to field young sides this season, but he said he thinks the players have more than stepped up to the challenge in a competitive league.
“We are a very young under 18s side and every week we are thinking what formation and system we can use to help the players, but they’ve all stepped up.
“All the under 16s have stepped up really, I think we had nine on the pitch at the end which is an unbelievable effort at that level.
“Speaking to their academy manager after the game he was very complimentary of the players which was nice to hear but there is still a lot to work on and like I said if we keep preforming at those levels the results will start to come as some of the play at times was very, very good.”
Thompson believed City should have killed the game off with the chances created but he did praise Sam Rodber for his two strikes and the young forward was unfortunate to not get a hat trick.
“We need to keep working and getting better around the penalty box because that was the only thing that let us down today as we should have scored 4/5/6 goals and haven’t quite finished the game off as we should have which is the lessons we need to learn from it.
“Sam Rodber had a good game, he got into some areas at times, he’s had a topsy turvy afternoon because he missed a penalty to win the game at 2-2 and he could have got his hat trick there, so he’ll learn from that but there was some real good performances out there so we are really pleased.”