James Ferry felt there was a lot that his side could take from their 0-0 local derby draw with Queens Park Rangers in the U21 Professional Development League Two South on Monday at Jersey Road. The Bees dominated the first-half but some wasteful finishing and fine goalkeeping from Joe Lumley kept them at bay. In the second-half The Bees had to contend with a bobbly pitch and strong wind but still proved more than a match for their West London neighbours. Speaking to Bees Player after the match James felt The Bees should have been out of sight in the opening stages but was pleased with the fact that they did at least get the clean sheet and the point.
“In the first-half the game should have been over because we had a load of chances to be three or four ahead,” said James. “We didn’t take our chances but the positive we can take is that we didn’t concede. If you don’t score then the only thing you can do is keep a clean sheet. We were on the front foot, in and out of possession, for most of the first-half. We got up to the ball, won the ball and created good chances. We were playing against the wind in the second-half and the pitch was a factor. It made it more of a scrappy game and we couldn’t play as smoothly as we wanted to. They had a few good spells in the second-half but I still thought we edged the whole game."
The clean sheet was The Bees first since a 3-0 win over Queens Park Rangers back in August. The closest that Rangers came to a goal on Monday was a Ryan Manning shot from close range that went narrowly wide but other than that Jack Bonham remaining relatively untroubled in the home goal. James admitted that some of the teams defending this season hadn’t been good enough but said the whole team could take pride from Monday’s clean sheet.
“We have conceded bad goals in some of our games this season,” said James. “Making sure you don’t concede is a big thing in every league whether it’s the Under-21s or the First-Team in the Sky Bet Championship. The whole team is happy with the clean sheet even though it is more the defensive players. It is always good for people like myself, Jan Holldack and Chris Mepham to come off the pitch thinking that they haven’t created anything.”
James recently returned from a loan spell with National League side Welling United. The 18-year-old played nearly every minute of his seven game spell with the Kent club but couldn’t help The Wings climb away from relegation trouble. Going from Under-21s football to the heart of a relegation scrap was a great eye-opener for James and one which showed him what he needs to do to continue his football progression.
“It was a really good spell at Welling and I was happy to be there,” said James. “It showed a different side of the game that it is hard to get being here and that will help the psychological side of the game. There are players there who need to stay in that league for one reason or another. We had to do all that we could to win rather than playing to help players get better. I was only going there if I was going to play and that was a really good benefit because I got minutes in league where, I feel, a lot of the teams could play in League Two. Playing there shows you what you need to do. It shows what you are doing that is already better and what you need to work on to get into the first-team here.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with James below