Wolves Academy Under-18s have a free weekend in terms of league action but many will be featuring in an Under-19 friendly with Kidderminster Harriers tomorrow. Next up in the league is a trip to Manchester City next Friday before welcoming Liverpool to Molineux on Tuesday, November 15th (7pm).
Tom Heslop caught up with first year scholar Dion Sanderson to find out more about the young defender.
Age: 16-years-old.
Position: Centre back
Have you always been at Wolves? Yes, I have come through the academy.
Best attribute: It has to be my heading. That is my strong point.
Attribute you think you could improve on: My left foot. I am a right-sided centre back but I have been put on the left a few times this year so I think working on my left foot is definitely something that can happen over the duration of the season. We get time at the end of training to do extra bits of practice. We can take ourselves away and practice on what we need to improve on. The extra sessions do help because there are situations in matches where you can look back and think ‘I was doing that in training last week’.
Best moment of the season so far for you: Being in the starting 11 for the under 18’s. That was a big moment for me and it is one I won’t forget. It was one of the targets that I set myself at the start of the season so it is nice to hit that target. The first game we played, I saw my name on the teamsheet and it was a great feeling.
Highlight of your career to date: Playing at Molineux. It was great to walk out onto the pitch. I would love to be able to do that again soon.
Thoughts on the season so far after nine games: Performance wise, we have been playing quite well. I think that even though we are close to the bottom of the table, our performances in games don’t show that. It is the mistakes that we make during the games that has put us where we are in the table. Over the course of the season, our relationships will get better and then our results will pick up. The first and second years have bonded really well this year, we are a good group and we all have faith that we can pick things up.
Despite the difficult start to the season, what positives are you taking from the performances? Even though we have lost quite a few games so far, we have to look back at them during the analysis sessions as a team and we have got to look at what we have done wrong and then we can look at putting those things right. We will always head into the next game with a clean slate.
What is the atmosphere like in the dressing room at the moment? Loud! There is a good atmosphere in there at the moment and we want to keep it that way.
What are your ambitions for the rest of the season? Hopefully I can break into the under 23’s at the end of the season, but if that can’t be achieved, then I would like to keep playing for the under 18’s.
