It has been a tough start to the under-18s season but we have learnt a lot from our opening three games even though results haven’t gone the way we would’ve liked them to.
Some of our possession play has been good and the attitude of players like Adam Bale has been fantastic. He has really stepped up to the plate as captain and players around him should really look up to him because he works incredibly hard and does a lot for the group.
Away from the field there have been a number of pleasing areas as well to highlight, Elliot Embleton and Josh Maja have stepped up to play with the under-23s while Joel Asoro made his first team debut against Shrewsbury and that is great on all fronts.
It’s great for us as an academy and hopefully we will continue to see players in the future following in their footsteps.
While it has left the youth team a little short of players, it has given younger lads the opportunity to step up but they have to realise they aren’t just there to make the numbers up.
They have to stake their claim, contribute and prove their worth.
With Newcastle up next it’s a great test for the players and hopefully we can turn our season around.
We have got a number of injuries to deal with while Brandon Taylor is suspended so already we know it's going to be tough.