I know this competition divides opinion but with but Town not playing then till October 18th does Ricketts play a full strength team or give the fringe players a run out? personannly i would look at the fringe players let Murphey have a game ,give cummings & ferjiri more game time and now a fully fit vincelot some game time.
I think we will see some others such as Okenabirhie start, it is the best way of adding pressure to the players who are regulars.
I doubt if we will play a strong team as three of the defence are away on international duty and one is injured. It will probably be mainly youth players with Walker in defence though we would do well to give McCormick and Morison some game time. Okenabirhie and Cummings also need to improve their fitness and Whaley has not played much either. I am not really sure what the point of this competition is any more (unless you take it seriously and try to win it) and th every weak side we played in the last game shows what the manager's opinion of it is.
town given all the time and space in the world in a first half they dominated. with a mixture of diagonal passes, , runs from the wing backs and passing through the midfield .fejri turned on a sixpence and smashed the ball low to beat the keeper, a well placed pass as he ran into space produced a good shoot but it was straight at the kepper, i am a fan of fejri but needs to improve his physicality as he was forced off the ball a number of times. Cummings got between the defenders to head home the second goal considering his ability he should have done better when one on one with the keeper. thompson made a few charging runs which unsettles the opponents.love was in left back and struggled against a very pacey winger who got in five low crossess that had pace and only needed somone to get a boot to them.walker looked solid as a center back. murphey delt comfertably with the shoots and corners.golbourne looked rusty and is very defensivley minded and got better as the game progressed. second half town seemed content to contain newcastle under 21 and hit them on the break, Newcastle were unlucky not to score they hit the bar and the post and rasping shot did not go far wide. very pleased to see Edwards to score a thunderbolt of a shoot 3-0 , Goss had a quiet game but a comfertable win for town
Think we have to beat Macclesfield (outright or on penalties) to go through for those who are interested in this competition.Looking at the tables it is interesting to see how poorly most of the under-21 sides are doing. I know some people were worried the U21 sides of big clubs might dominate it but that has proved not to be the case. It is a pity though that Chelsea Under 21 did not beat Lincoln a couple of years back as at least they would not have kicked us off the pitch at Wembley like Lincoln did.
what i have observerd about the under 21 teams we have played ,whilst generaly been well drilled and good on the ball, they seem to really struggle in the physical side of the game, i dont mean beacause of there age but they seem unused to the more physical chalenges and complain about reasonable chalenges.
