Hull City U18 Joint Manager Matt Hare has praised his side on their first half performance, after watching his team defeat Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 at Bishop Burton College.
The Tigers secured their first win in the U18 Professional Development League this season, courtesy of a brace from Louis Beckett and a penalty from Oliver Green.
On the game…
“I was really happy, because we asked the boys over the past few games to start strong and I think we were three-nil up after twenty minutes, so the boys responded to that really well. I thought we looked a real threat going forward and I think at three-nil, we could have been in front by a lot more at half-time. We had that ruthless edge in front of goal, but maybe there was a few lads that hadn’t played a lot of minutes recently and we can understand that we maybe wasn’t as ruthless in that top end.
“It was a very good first half as there was loads of opportunities to score more goals than what we did. We looked a threat on the break and maybe some better decisions like a better final touch or final pass might have increased the scoreline, but I was pleased for the boys that they approached the game in that manner and it got us that half-time advantage to see the game through.
Improvements for the team…
“It’s just about understanding the second half for me and managing the game and managing the scoreline.
“I think if we had built possession up and maybe drawn Sheffield Wednesday in a little bit, we could have then gone and exploited them when they came out to press us. However, it just seems that we did a little bit too much defending for a three-nil lead in the second half and didn’t have the quality on the break that we did have in the first.
“We’re also disappointed to lose the clean sheet with only two minutes left to play; we spoke at the beginning of the game about a clean sheet mentality. Andy Dawson has mentioned it to the U23’s and it’s important that we are drumming it into them and we were delighted that we came into half-time relatively unthreatened in the first half, but unfortunately we couldn’t see that mentality through in the end.
Birmingham City Preview…
“The first two games of the season against Sheffield United and Wigan, we played really well in both and we didn’t come away with any points. We’re pleased that despite how there’s improvements to be made from today, we managed to come away with points and some goals for the boys to keep them going on in the season, starting at Birmingham next week.”