Everyone Deserves Credit

The Under 18s beat a strong Southampton side 2-0 on Saturday to make it five games unbeaten.

Goals from the in-form Jordan Allan and Austin Samuels secured all three points for Ryan’s side, it was the fourth win in five games for the young Wolves.

Despite missing players on international duty, Ryan was full of praise for their replacements and he says that the players have set their own standards.

“It was a really hard fought victory - we’d watched them and spoken about hard-working of a team they were and we had to match that. I felt that throughout the game, we did,” he said.

“We had a couple of lads away on international duty, we lost Dan McKenna to Ireland and Elliot Watt to Scotland - so we gave Owen Otasowie, who's an Under 16 player, his full debut.

“I thought he did really well and to have him and Taylor Perry in centre midfield, two Under 16 players, was excellent.

“The lads grew into the game, and it was really pleasing to see how well they played together.

“You can give the credit to the back four, which they deserve - the result against Southampton was the fourth clean sheet out of five.

“The defending starts from the front, Jordan’s (Allan) work-rate, Brad Carr - the whole team’s work-rate over the five or six games that I’ve been in charge has been excellent.

“They’ve carried it into every game, they’ve maintained it and they've set their own standards.

“Jordan’s a typical centre forward, confidence plays a massive part in their game.

“He keeps scoring and he backs himself to score every game - he shows it in training, there’s nothing on a Saturday that we don't see in training.

“When we do finishing or small-sided games in training, his finishing is excellent.

“He’s getting his just rewards now, he can’t stop scoring and hopefully that continues for our last two games.

Wolves face Newcastle this weekend (Saturday, 3pm), a game which will be played at Blackburn Rovers training ground.

Ryan says that the players have set their own targets for the season and that they are now hoping to end the season unbeaten.

“We always have a look at the opposition but like I’ve said all along, it’s all about us and what we do on the Saturday.

“It’s down to the players, there are two games to go, they set themselves their own challenges when we had a team meeting before the merit league started and they've got to maintain their own standards.

“It’s going to be a good opportunity for the players to finish the merit league season unbeaten.

“They've been excellent in training, excellent in the games and hopefully we can maintain that until the end of the season.”