Foo thoughts on the yoof cup game

[Jim Smith 2,314]

Sorry if all done further down below!

I thought it was a great game to watch and highly entertaining. Certainly a lot better than the first game. I also thought that over the two games we shaded it and did look the better side even with 10 men (albeit one that needs to be more clinical) so justice was done in the end.

Some very encouraging performances last night. In particular I thought Morris was superb at holding up the ball and both Murphy''s had much better games than the first leg even if once again the end product was a bit lacking. I also thought Hall-Johnson, Mcgeechan and Toffolo looked good players and that the whole team benefited from playing on a better pitch and knocked the ball about well at times. I also thought we also looked a bit more solid with Barker at right back once he came on.

It was a shame for poor Rod Young that he had to go off straight away as I thought his pace might have made the difference for us second half. the number 10 (King I think) had looked tidy in both games and showed some really good touches but struggled a bit physically against their CBs and CMs. I think though that he is one of the younger ones so the strength will come.

As for the Murphys, yes watching them can be a bit frustrating because they get in great positions then take a touch too many but I think for the time being the most important thing is that they have all the physical attributes there to be really, really good players. You can''t coach pace and the ability to drift past people that they have. That bodes very well. Hopefully the decision making/awareness will come in time and that is something that (to a degree) can be coached and will come from playing with players who are better than them rather than players they can run rings around all the time. I also wonder if they might also individually be more productive when not playing in the same team as they do seem to want to pass to each other a lot of the time. I note that often in the U21s one starts and the other is on the bench. Maybe that is the reason why.

Hopefully we can get 20,000 for the final and give Liverpool or Chelsea a real game.