Today’s game was screened live on the Charlton website. We went down 1-0 – quite disappointing given that Charlton missed a glut of chances and all it would’ve taken was a single slice of ambition or luck for us to have snatched what would admittedly have been a totally undeserved point.
I’m afraid we betrayed the same weaknesses as last Saturday versus The New Saints – we have no specialist striker currently available at this level and we’re having to make do with players in positions in which they are uncomfortable or unable to shine.
We conceded on just 2 minutes, sloppy play in front of our own penalty area being seized upon by Taylor, who had a clear run on goal to score. The home side missed numerous opportunities to increase their lead, Campbell going closest by hitting the outside of the post on 34 minutes.
Coach Anthony Wright made some tweaks to change things in the 2nd half. It was encouraging to see U18 regulars Iestyn Jones, Aimar Govea and Yori Griffiths getting runouts, but expecting a lot of them to turn the game around. Govea in particular got to the byline to good effect, without quite being able to find colleagues in space.
We had just one shot on target in the match – a tame strike by Congreve straight at the keeper in the first half. Cadogan turned a first time flick over the bar after the interval – and that was about the sum of our attempts on goal.
Our side today was 4-1-4-1 to start with, with Nzingo joining Cadogan upfront until he was replaced early in the 2nd half: Kit Margetson; Dan Watts (s – Iestyn Jones 54m), Harry Jones, Richard Faakye, Kian Jenkins; Joel Cotterill; Cameron Congreve, Glory Nzingo (s – Aimar Govea 62m), Mitchell Bates, Ben Lloyd (s – Yori Griffith 78m); Maliq Cadogan. Unused subs: Ewan Griffith, Jack Fanning.
For those that are interested in these sorts of things, the average age of our U21 squad yesterday was just 18.
Harry Jones was the senior pro at 20, Cameron Congreve turned 20 last week. Given his early elevation to the U21, it’s perhaps easy to overlook that Ben Lloyd is still only 18.
At the end of the game we were fielding 3 17 year olds (Kit Margetson, Yori Griffith and Aimar Govea) and 1 16 year old (Iestyn Jones). We had another pair of 17 year olds on the bench (Ewan Griffiths, Jack Fanning).
For balance, it’s worth noting that Charlton’s squad included 7 players with first team experience, including Manchester City’s Lewis Fiorini who was a playing colleague of Charlie Patino at Blackpool last year. Fiorini was given a try-out yesterday on return to fitness.
Although injuries and departures definitely played their part, it would be safe to assume that our U21 coach Anthony Wright is already starting to turn his attention by planning for next season. This may mean an inevitable near-term dip in U21 results, but probably to be expected.