Elite Development Squad Lead Coach Ben Wilkinson was full of praise for his team following our 3-1 Premier League 2 win over West Ham on Friday evening.
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But he also believes there is more to come from his young squad that showed a big improvement from Monday’s defeat to Chelsea.
Goals from Ryan McAidoo, Reigan Heskey and Justin Oboavwoduo were too much for Mohamadou Kante’s consolation to overcome at the Joie Stadium.
And following the final whistle, Wilkinson pointed out the positives from his side’s performance, but also what they will look to work on before our EFL Trophy encounter with Oldham.
“I’m really pleased in terms of if I look at the game as a 95-minute game, I thought for 75 minutes we played really well,” said Wilkinson.
“I thought our intent was better, which we spoke about, with and without the ball. We were more aggressive without the ball, trying to win it higher up the pitch and with the ball I thought we had to be patient.
MATCH REPORT | CITY EDS 3-1 WEST HAM UNITED
“In the first half we had to really try and wear them down, be good in the final third because of the way they defended in the low block that they played in.
“So I think it was a big help for us to get the first goal before half-time just to release a bit of tension that may have built up in those moments.
“But I think the guys were doing the right things in terms of how we were trying to score and my message at half-time would have been to stay patient,” the Lead Coach continued.
“Scoring just makes that a bit easier. And then I thought the first 15/20 minutes of the second half were excellent. We had numerous chances, we probably should have gone two, three nil up before we did get our second goal.
“Eventually we got the second and the third came and then I thought the last 15 minutes we came off the gas a little bit.
“They were a little bit more aggressive, we lost the ball too easily, had to defend too many transitions and then we conceded in the end which is really disappointing because I thought for the majority of the night we defended really well.”
Watch Wilkinson’s post-match interview in full via the video above…