Under 23s In Tournament Action

Wolves Under 23s are in tournament action this weekend as they travel to Nuneaton Town to compete in the UKFlooringDirect.co.uk Challenge Cup.

 

Taking place at Nuneaton’s Coombe Abbey Arena, the tournament will play host to Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Glasgow Rangers, Coventry City, Nuneaton Town as well as Wolves.

 

Scott Sellars is set to take a large squad to the tournament as he prepares his squad for the start of the Premier League 2 season on Monday 14th August against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.

 

Wolves will play Nuneaton Town and Glasgow Rangers on Saturday - the Under 23s manager is delighted to be involved in a tournament but says it will be a tough test for his players.

 

“The teams in the competition are pretty prestigious - Liverpool, PSV, ourselves and Rangers with Coventry as well as Nuneaton who’s tournament it is,” he said.

 

“We’re looking forward to it, we’ve got two tough games - firstly against Nuneaton who are a Conference North team who seem to be spending a lot of money and who have some good results in pre-season. 

 

“And then we’ve got the second game against Rangers and I’ve been told they might bring some first team players down, so that will be really tough for the boys. 

 

“It’s something that we’re looking forward to, and also we’ve got a lot of players at the moment so hopefully over the weekend it will be a chance for the lads to play 90 minutes. 

 

“We’ve been building up, most of the lads have got 60 minutes in them and we’re hoping over the weekend that we can get 90 minutes from them.

 

“Looking at the format of the competition, it’s a difficult one to win because you don't play everybody and you've got to win your own games and then at the end of it you see who’s got the most points. 

 

“I’m looking at it more as an opportunity to get the 90 minutes in but also to play against two different opponents, and two different styles as well which will be good for the lads.”

 

Sellars’ side have recently returned from a pre-season tour of Holland, a trip which the manager says was a successful training camp.

 

With having so many games in pre-season, and more scheduled before the start of the Premier League 2 season, he says that every player has had a fair chance to stake a claim for a place in the team.

 

Sellars continued, “I always say to the lads that come the first game of the season, they can look me in the eye and I can look them in the eye and say ‘you’ve had the opportunity to prove that you should be in the team - and you have taken or haven't taken it.’ 

 

“If we start with the strongest team after week one, I don't think it’s really fair on all of the players - I think you have to give everybody an opportunity. 

 

“Somebody always comes up and surprises you, we had that last year with Morgan (Gibbs-White) when he came up from the Under 18s and did really well and I couldn't leave him out of the team.

 

“That’s what we’ll be looking at again, who wants that spot.

 

“Up to now, we’ve played lots of minutes which has been good - we’ve had a great training camp in Holland. 

 

“We’ve only got two injuries at the moment and they're both ankle strains which happens a lot in football with tackles and contact - one from a game and one from training. 

 

“We’ve come through that relatively unscathed, we’ve got 24 players available for the weekend so the majority will get 90 minutes and then we’ve got two games on Tuesday next week. 

 

“We’ve got Birmingham at 1 o’clock and then we’ve also organised a game against Charlton at 6:30, again getting the players some minutes. 

 

“Then we’ve organised a game on the Saturday against TNS - we’ve got lots of games next week and hopefully lots of minutes for the lads to get fitter, play together and hopefully become a better and stronger team.”