Development Squad Head Coach Flemming Pedersen feels that the mistakes being made by some of the younger members of the current Under-21 squad are the right ones if they want to be playing top-level football in the future. The Danish coach was speaking after seeing an experienced Bristol City run out 3-0 winners over his side on Monday afternoon thanks to goals from Adam El-Abd, Shawn McCoulsky and Connor Evans.
While Flemming was not happy with the first-half performance from his team he remained positive about the potential of his side moving forward.
“I have two sorts of feelings on the match today,” said Flemming, speaking to Bees Player. “There was the difference between the first and the second half and the fact that we can do so much better in many of the situations. In the first-half there were a lot of situations where we could have done much better. We were satisfied that with ten men we still took the initiative and played the game in the second-half. However I am also really happy to see that some of our younger players made mistakes but they were making the right decisions for their future.”
Flemming named four members of the Youth Team in his starting XI for Monday’s match with 19-year-old Jan Holldack the oldest member of the travelling squad. With such a young side Flemming said there was a lot of scope for improvement and that afternoon’s like yesterday will be useful in the long run.
“We had Zach Birse, Chris Mepham and a lot of other young players in our team today so there was a lot to learn,” said Flemming. “We always need to look three or four years ahead. Ellery Balcombe was trying to be attacking in the box and I am really happy for that. It doesn’t matter if they make mistakes as long as they are the right mistakes. If Ellery had stayed in his goal instead of coming out then that would have been the wrong decision when it comes to playing top-level football. If I am looking for a few years ahead then he has to make that decision.”
Monday’s defeat means that it is now six games without a win for the Development Squad in 2016. Flemming believes that as long as the team keeps improving and putting into practice in matches what they are doing in training the results will soon follow.
“It is about development but we want to win still, there is no doubt about that,” said Flemming. “We have gone six games without a win now. It shows the mentality of the young players now that they are not feeling pressure but they are looking forward. They are still in a good place but next time we want to get the win. When we do the right things, like we try to do, in the end we will always win. It is a matter of time and we have that time in Under-21 football.”