Ben Wilkinson says earning a clean sheet against Reading was a key objective and he was pleased to see his players achieve the task.
City’s Elite Development Squad earned an important 3-0 triumph over the Royals on Sunday afternoon with a Mahamadou Sangare brace and Divine Mukasa strike key talking points from the win.
But an equally important topic was City’s ability to keep Reading at bay to obtain our first Premier League 2 clean sheet of the season as we moved to 15th in the table heading into the October international break.
And Lead Coach Wilkinson explained at full-time that it was an ambition his team have been focusing on.
MATCH REPORT | CITY 3-0 READING
“The last couple of games we’ve conceded more goals than what we’d want for sure,” Wilkinson admitted.
“[But] I don’t think the amount of goals we’ve conceded is reflective of the performance. But we’ve certainly been a little bit too open and given goals away too cheaply.
So something we wanted from today’s game was a clean sheet, and it was pleasing to be able to have delivered that.”
And when asked about finding our form just before the October international break, Wilkinson was quick to state he is confident his side will be able to continue our momentum when the players return from respective international call-ups.
“Especially in that competition [UEFA Youth League] we’ve played two decent sides and had two real good performances. So fingers crossed we can build on that,” stated Wilkinson.
“Villarreal will be difficult, I think they had a really positive result against Juventus this week, so we know what that will look like, especially in their own backyard.
“But I’m confident with the squad we’ve got for that competition and the mentality of the players. We’ll be in a good place for it.”
Watch Wilkinson’s post-match interview in full via the video above…