The old gold were agonisingly beaten by a last minute goal at Leeds United last Saturday, before jetting off to play an under-17s friendly with PSV Eindhoven. The youngsters experienced the state-of-the-art De Herdgang training facility, before coming from a goal down to beat the Dutch outfit 6-1.
The busy week concludes with a home fixture against Nottingham Forest back at Compton, as McPike’s side return to league action on Saturday morning. There have been opportunities aplenty for the 18s with a number shining for the 21s in recent games – something which has been pleasing for McPike to see.
On the Leeds United defeat
“There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s disappointing to concede the winning goal in the way we did.
“However, I couldn’t have asked much more from the performance of the team which was basically the under-16s with one or two first years.
“They defended valiantly, played with bravery and had a real go. It’s disappointing from a result point of view, but there are lots of positives from a development point of view.”
On being back home this weekend
“It’s good to be back home where we’ve had some really good winning performances. It’s an opportunity at the minute for younger players to experience what the 18s is about.
“You’re coming to the time of the year where most academies start looking at their second years transitioning and seeing if they’re able to cope in the 21s environment.
“There are lots of variables each week, so we’ll just have to continue with the way we approach games up to this point.
“Nothing really changes with us. We keep working hard, we work with what we’ve got and we try our best to compete in the games on the weekend.”
On a busy week with international travel
“We’ve framed it up to the boys that they’ve done Leeds, PSV and Forest as a mini Champions League week. They’ve played in the league, they’ve played an international fixture and now they’re back to playing in the league on Saturday.
“It’s an amazing experience for them to be lucky enough to do that.”
On the experience being at PSV
“It’s very demanding on the players to go from a league game, to recover, to travelling again. It’s really tough on them.
“That being said, they showed great character in another game with all the travel included.
“It’s always good to give boys different experiences, so it was a really worthwhile trip to go and play international opposition.
“PSV are an extremely big European club with a big history of winning and producing players. You expect them to have a really good facility, which was the case.”
On the difference in style and the performance
“It’s different in terms of the style of play and it was a lot more intense, as well as competitive in the transition which we managed to cause them problems with.
“A couple of our goals came on the counter attack because we worked harder than they did.
“It was an unusual game as we didn’t have the best of performances with the ball in the first half. We were quite loose with the ball and couldn’t really control possession very well, but the first time we did we scored an excellent goal to equalise.
“There were two minutes added time at the end of the first half, and we scored two and were 3-1 up which wasn’t a true reflection of the game.
“We spoke about being more controlled and calmer in transition. We couldn’t quite get to grips with that against them – they were physically quite a strong side.
“However, we defended quite low and compact and ended up scoring three goals on the counter attack in the second half. We were clinical and effective in the crucial moments which was the most pleasing thing to see.”
On players stepping up to the under-21s
“It’s great that they’re getting the opportunity and the chance to try and prove themselves within the under-21s.
“They’ve done well, worked hard and added some value to the team. They just need to make the most out of these experiences.
“When they come back to the 18s, they need to bring what they’ve learned back into the games with us.
“It’s all about the different experiences, when can we raise the bar and raise the challenge at the right moment.”
