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Gaz Norton's Reserve Team News
Recent form in terms of wins for the Reserves has been good. In fact we have won our last 4 games on the trot, however some of the performances during this run have not been satisfactory to Simon and I.
The standards we reached earlier in the season need to be reached on a more regular basis and we are consistently drilling that into the lads of the importance of this. Part of the run has seen us reach the Semi Finals of the league Challenge Trophy and we will be trying to emulate the 1st team in reaching a final this season with a view to bringing the Trophy to the Moat Ground. We don’t know who we will face in the Semi Final because the other half of the draw is a couple of rounds behind. Whoever it is, we will be giving it our best shot.
The 1/4 final victory was last Saturday at Bloxwich and was particularly pleasing because of the way the lads battled to keep on to the 2-1 win. We finished the game with 3 of this seasons current youth team on the pitch, Dave Kemp, Jon Jenkinson and Edwin Walker. This is testament to our policy of giving younger lads chance. There would have been one more involved but unavailability meant the player concerned was unable to make his debut for us. Earl Alexander and Carl Timms are the main two lads that continue to impress of late. The challenge Simon and I have laid down to both of them is to continue performing well consistently week in and weekout and the chances to have a sniff of 1st team action should come.
Matt Moran had 90 mins on Saturdays and through no fault of his own looked rusty. To be fair to Matt, he is well short of match practise and in my opinion would benefit from a few games in the Reserves. Jim Lewesley played well and after his recent taste of 1st team action is hungry for more.
It was great to see Mark Shiels back in action for the 1st time. Mark has been chomping at the bit for his return and judging by his kicking on Saturday maybe he has come back a little early !! Joking apart though, Sheilsy made some excellent saves in the game and as time went on it was visible to see the confidence in his knee grow which subsequently improved the quality of his kicking.
Good luck to Mark on his bid to challenge James for the 1st team number one spot.
Gary Norton
