U21 Tonight [Merged]

[Shuffle]

Wind killing this game….. Rob Atkinson was solid & looked fit & flew into a couple of tackles & was fine.  Really impressed with Sam Pearson albeit feeding off scraps 

[The Original OTIB]

Debi Storm sounds like ...

[Port Said Red]

13 minutes ago, Shuffle said:

Wind killing this game….. Rob Atkinson was solid & looked fit & flew into a couple of tackles & was fine.  Really impressed with Sam Pearson albeit feeding off scraps 

Not sure if he was scheduled to play 45 but he hasn't come back out, they may be protecting him in  the conditions 

[Lakeside Red]

He’s only down to play 45 min 

[stephenkibby.]

Any score update?

[1960maaan]

[Port Said Red]

0 -1 clear pen. Bajic went the right way but good pen. It's been more Sunderland this half. François and Nelson on.

 

[Port Said Red]

Looks like we are going down to 10 men. Blackwell taken out when on a run, Hutton is on. Now OTC is down with no remaining subs.

 

[petehinton]

2 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Looks like we are going down to 10 men. Blackwell taken out when on a run, Hutton is on. Now OTC is down with no remaining subs.

 

Dave Rennie must be hiding in the bushes influencing things!

[Shuffle]

The big positive on the night assuming he suffers no reaction was Rob Atkinson who was very good. The weather was horrendous but wind dropped second half and thought Sunderland were the better team.  There were glimpses of quality from a number of the players but not consistently over the 90 minutes which you would expect from younger players. Bajic was decent & nearly got the penalty but beyond a busy display from Pearson & Araoye who was solid there weren’t any other standouts. The weather certainly didn’t help so hard to judge fairly.

[Kibs]

Fantastic to see Rob Atkinson back out there. Really rate him, both defensively and his bravery carrying the ball forward. 

[Port Said Red]

41 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Dave Rennie must be hiding in the bushes influencing things!

Sorry chaps my phone ran out of power, disappointing defeat in the end, Sunderland seemed better versed in the dark arts, picking up yellows every time we got close to the area 

Their keeper was impressive, he read the game well and made one superb save from an Idehen header. 

It didn't help that the weather calmed considerably in the 2nd half so we didn't get the advantage they had in the first. 

Araoye and Idehen, both played well and I quite liked the look of Taine Anderson when he replaced Rob at half time, Marley Rose seemed to disappear from the game before being subbed. 

Similar to the first team we missed someone to unlock their defence.

Good 45 for Rob I think, read the game well, had a couple of little runs and a couple of heart stopping tackles, that he didn't back out of or react to. Hopefully another game soon.

[GrahamC]

5 minutes ago, Shuffle said:

The big positive on the night assuming he suffers no reaction was Rob Atkinson who was very good. The weather was horrendous but wind dropped second half and thought Sunderland were the better team.  There were glimpses of quality from a number of the players but not consistently over the 90 minutes which you would expect from younger players. Bajic was decent & nearly got the penalty but beyond a busy display from Pearson & Araoye who was solid there weren’t any other standouts. The weather certainly didn’t help so hard to judge fairly.

Cheers mate.

Only other observation I’d make is the 21s are currently playing Pearson and/or Yeboah as their main strikers.

The first team has only scored twice in the last 5 games (& the same CB has scored both of those) so it doesn’t appear the solution to our lack of goals is there.

Clearly getting Wells back as an option (despite one or two on here) can’t do any harm but we just look short of goals throughout the whole squad.

[bcfc01]

3 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Good 45 for Rob I think, read the game well, had a couple of little runs and a couple of heart stopping tackles, that he didn't back out of or react to. Hopefully another game soon.

Next game is next Tuesday (13.00) home v Swansea.

May see Williams in that one ?

Wells out for at least another two weeks or so.

[frenchred]

Thought it was a good game given the conditions, 2 evenly balanced teams both lacking firepower upfront (sound familiar)!

[Shuffle]

1 minute ago, GrahamC said:

Cheers mate.

Only other observation I’d make is the 21s are currently playing Pearson and/or Yeboah as their main strikers.

The first team has only scored twice in the last 5 games (& the same CB has scored both of those) so it doesn’t appear the solution to our lack of goals is there.

Clearly getting Wells back as an option (despite one or two on here) can’t do any harm but we just look short of goals throughout the whole squad.

There is no magic solution in the 21s to address goal scoring issues in the first team.  Yeboah was on the periphery of game & Pearson was a bigger threat for me.  Equally, the midfield admittedly on tonight’s performance in atrocious conditions didn’t have anyone who would run at people and open them up.  Araoye was decent but no LWB & Rose at RWB had a mixed night so nothing coming from wide areas. Probably not the best game to assess the talent pool but Big Rob leapt out at you as being our standout player tonight.  Agree, we need Wells fit and firing as imo knits our attacking threat together as such a clever footballer. 

[alexukhc]

What happened to Morrison?

[alexukhc]

What happened to Morrison?

[Davefevs]

 

[Will Rollason]

I'm guessing we can't go and actually watch these games at the HPC? only available to watch online?

[GrahamC]

22 minutes ago, Will Rollason said:

I'm guessing we can't go and actually watch these games at the HPC? only available to watch online?

Yes you can & they’re free.

[Merrick's Marvels]

20 hours ago, Shuffle said:

There were glimpses of quality from a number of the players but not consistently over the 90 minutes which you would expect from younger players. Bajic was decent & nearly got the penalty but beyond a busy display from Pearson & Araoye who was solid there weren’t any other standouts.

Not sure many of that team have a long term future here. Tinnion's conveyor belt is self-mythologising bull. But we knew that anyway.

[spudski]

The club clearly rate Yeboah...but apart from speed/ strength and athletism for his age, technically and reading of the game he seems way off. 

I get it's early days, but he looks way behind others like Bell, Semenyo and Conway when they were introduced into the first team. 

We've clearly had a plethora of young players in recent times, step up to Championship level, which is rare. It worries me that we will think this is the norm, and rely on the academy, even though some aren't ready.

How often do you see academy kids jump between Academy level and upper level Championship on a consistent basis. 

 

 

[GrahamC]

15 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Not sure many of that team have a long term future here. Tinnion's conveyor belt is self-mythologising bull. But we knew that anyway.

Someone posted a few weeks ago that expecting us to produce another Scott, Semenyo & Kelly every year is fantasy stuff, let alone the academy producing multiple numbers each season.

I’ve only seen 1 U21 game live but respect the views of several who see a fair few & think we have at least 5 or 6 playing now who are probably going to be let go at season’s end.

I also saw someone asking about Morrison who is not even 18 until next March.

The danger in overhyping certain youngsters is obvious, some are now wondering why he isn’t around the first team when progress isn’t linear.

The kid has plenty of time yet or he might not ever fulfill his potential, only time will tell.

[petehinton]

1 minute ago, spudski said:

The club clearly rate Yeboah...but apart from speed/ strength and athletism for his age, technically and reading of the game he seems way off. 

I get it's early days, but he looks way behind others like Bell, Semenyo and Conway when they were introduced into the first team. 

We've clearly had a plethora of young players in recent times, step up to Championship level, which is rare. It worries me that we will think this is the norm, and rely on the academy, even though some aren't ready.

How often do you see academy kids jump between Academy level and upper level Championship on a consistent basis. 

 

 

Semenyo, Belly & Tommy were all 19/20 when they got their proper consistent break through in the first team, as mentioned Ephraim is only 17, and a very young 17 too. May even have been 16 when he came out top of the SDS runs in pre season & Austria tour. Those extra 2/3 years are massive, he’ll be a totally different animal then. 

[spudski]

4 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Semenyo, Belly & Tommy were all 19/20 when they got their proper consistent break through in the first team, as mentioned Ephraim is only 17, and a very young 17 too. May even have been 16 when he came out top of the SDS runs in pre season & Austria tour. Those extra 2/3 years are massive, he’ll be a totally different animal then. 

That's the point I'm making Pete. 

He's very young and raw. 

As a Club looking to gain top 6, can we risk playing 17 Yo's in the Championship, who clearly aren't ready, and way off what Tommy, Bell and Semenyo were...and those three were still raw when introduced.

If you wish to give 17yos who clearly aren't ready minutes at this level,then I'm baffled how the club expect us to achieve top 6 doing so. 

 

[And Its Smith]

I would expect the youth to keep coming through. We have some very good youngsters.  Seb Palmer-Houlden for example…he has a very good chance of being better than Sam Bell when he gets to the same age. Maybe even better.  I believe SPH is 19. Yeboah, as someone else has mentioned will get so much better by the time he is 19-20.  

[bcfc01]

17 minutes ago, spudski said:

That's the point I'm making Pete. 

He's very young and raw. 

As a Club looking to gain top 6, can we risk playing 17 Yo's in the Championship, who clearly aren't ready, and way off what Tommy, Bell and Semenyo were...and those three were still raw when introduced.

If you wish to give 17yos who clearly aren't ready minutes at this level,then I'm baffled how the club expect us to achieve top 6 doing so. 

 

He is raw and looks out of place at times.

But he was 17 in July and he's still growing into his body, he's rapid and he is very coachable (he takes it in and puts it on the pitch). Thats why he's in the first team squad. He'll be another Semenyo imo.

[petehinton]

25 minutes ago, spudski said:

That's the point I'm making Pete. 

He's very young and raw. 

As a Club looking to gain top 6, can we risk playing 17 Yo's in the Championship, who clearly aren't ready, and way off what Tommy, Bell and Semenyo were...and those three were still raw when introduced.

If you wish to give 17yos who clearly aren't ready minutes at this level,then I'm baffled how the club expect us to achieve top 6 doing so. 

 

Sorry yes totally agree. Didn’t mean to come across accusational, if it did!

Its all very messy isn’t it. I know that the clubs (probably Tinnion) golden North Star is to have an entire starting 11 from the academy, and all being good enough to do it consistently, not just a token one off game. 
 

Absolute lunacy to try and work to that, also seemingly want to be top 6, with the owner saying we can basically sell a star player each window too. Nothing adds up at all. 

[bcfc01]

24 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

I would expect the youth to keep coming through. We have some very good youngsters.  Seb Palmer-Houlden for example…he has a very good chance of being better than Sam Bell when he gets to the same age. Maybe even better.  I believe SPH is 19. Yeboah, as someone else has mentioned will get so much better by the time he is 19-20.  

Yep. People are very quick to determine a players future when the player is a teenager !

Madness.