Ahead of our final B-team game of the season tonight, against Manchester City U21s at Edgeley Park, Director Of Football, Simon Wilson talks about the benefits of these reserve games.
Discussing the first batch of B-team games, which has seen us take on Bolton, Burnely and Huddersfield, Simon said:
“We are delighted with the outcomes that have come out of this batch of games.
“We set out with three objectives: 1) To top up minutes for first-team players, so they were ‘game ready’ when called for. 2) To give our promising players from our Academy a new challenge; playing with and against first-team players, at Edgeley Park in games with supporters. 3) Finally, to look at available players from other clubs and benchmark against our own.”
“So far, we have seen the positive impact to the first-team, with Tanto Olaofe, Jack Stretton, Callum Camps and Joe Lewis all coming into the senior side and making an impact in recent weeks. We’ve seen academy players Ashton Mee and Keane Barugh travelling with the first-team after featuring in B team games, with Ashton making his debut at the weekend; 15-year-old schoolboy Joe Hillary has played in all three games so far, and we have had the chance to review over 15 trialist players across five games.
“In addition to these three objectives, what has been really pleasing is the synergy that the first-team and Academy are working with. Jamie Crowther, Dave Conlon and Paul Turnbull have taken the team, Ali Gibb has worked with Luke Smith on the medical care, Megan Lord with Jake Simpson on conditioning, Jack Hodnett and Joppe Meulensteen on the analysis and Ryan Jones with Alex Cowdy on the operations and administration.
“This has all been supported with great enthusiasm from the team behind the team at Edgeley Park and of course our brilliant supporters who have braved some pretty horrendous conditions to turn up for the games!
“Each game has provided a different challenge. We are trying to be a ‘winning’ club, but winning can mean different things, especially with development players and teams. Next season we will be looking for more opportunities like these to give our guys the best chance of developing.”
