Ahead of the new campaign, which opens up Thursday with an FA Youth Cup fixture at Bridge Road, Manager Alfie Oakman updates on his sides progress.
Pre season drew to a close on Tuesday 23rd August, facing a strong Cambridge United U18 side that Jimmy Unwin kindly agreed to bring over. Although we lost 0-1, the lads competed really well, despite being without the ball for large parts of the game. The players are still getting used to each other, new coaches, new system and a different style of play, so to only lose by a small margin to League One opposition is fairly pleasing in your 5th game as a team.
Not only was the fixture good minutes in the tank, the players took many learning points away from the game, as did myself and the coaches. Similarly in the week prior to that, we faced a really strong St Neots U18 outfit and drew 3-3, giving the lads a really strong test and lots to take away from the game. We also faced Thetford Town U18, Chatteris Town Reserves & March Town U18’s coming away with 0-6, 0-6 and 1-6 score lines respectively.
Of course there has been a lot of unavailability over the summer with holidays etc, so I’m looking forward to a steady schedule of training every week from now on, with good numbers so we can improve on certain areas.
The lads were in for training on bank holiday Monday where we worked on a few bits and just brought the group together in the build up to Thursdays FA Youth Cup fixture. Everyone was in good spirits and I’m personally looking forward to our first competitive game as a group, even better with us starting at Bridge Road.
Our opposition on Thursday is an unknown quantity in Letchworth Garden City Eagles, but from what I’ve heard they have a very strong group of players with a couple of good individuals so will no doubt be a good test for us.
For anyone free on Thursday evening, it would be fantastic to see a big crowd at Bridge Road support the U18’s, as we look to progress to the first qualifying round.
Kick off is 19:45 with the gates opening at 18:45, only £3 entry. I hope to see many of you there cheering on the lads.
Up The Stutes!
Alfie
