After overseeing his side’s dominant display and 2-0 victory over Bristol City, our U18s coach Nicky Eaden expressed the importance of a bouncebackability in football.
The young Reds responded brilliantly to last week’s defeat at Millwall by working on the basics and coming back much stronger in their win against the Robins.
“We conceded three at Millwall and didn’t look as solid as we did the week before,” began Eaden. “I said in the interview after that game that we’d be doing some more defensive work in training and that’s exactly what we did.
“We went through the basic defensive shape. Things like recovery runs, reactions and distances were all worked on.
“It’s always good for a coach when you see that they’ve taken it onboard but it’s not something that happens overnight; we’ve still got work to do.”
The Reds controlled proceedings for the majority of the game and looked a shadow of the team that suffered defeat in the capital.
Eaden praised the overall display, highlighting the effectiveness of the attacking options at his disposal.
“It was a very good overall performance,” he continued. “We played some effective football and worked hard as a team to get the win.
“We played what the game offered us. I wanted to get the ball to the forward players because they’re all serious goal threats.”
One of those attackers, Fabio Jalo, opened his account for the season with a confident strike early on in the game
“He offers something different,” asserted Eaden. “He’s got good feet and he’s such a clean striker of the ball.
“He’ll have to work out how to get himself into more of these goalscoring positions because he’s got a knack of throwing people off balance and making a yard for himself.”
Barnsley’s second goalscorer, Theo Chapman, marked his return to the side with a fabulous goal in the 78th minute.
Eaden expressed his delight for the youngster, so soon after enduring a tough period of injury.
“I was really pleased with Theo,” stated our U18s coach. “He was injured when I first came in. We put him on at Millwall in the second half and I don’t think he’ll mind me saying that he was poor.
“Before he came on against Bristol City I told him that he’s got to show everyone what he can do. He’s a great player and we all got to see that.”
