FA Youth Cup - Milwall 3-1 Southend United

[Yorkshire Blue]

Anyone going along to watch the firstsyouths in action in the FA Cup tonight?

Kick-off 7pm at the Den according to the Official Site

 

[Uncle Leo]

Probably would have gone to that if I was in London this week.

When did The Den stop being 'New'?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Probably would have gone to that if I was in London this week.

When did The Den stop being 'New'?

Probably as soon as Millwall's delightful fans first attended.

Anyway good to know this is one major sporting event in London which you won't be stalking me at (I was at the Aus v NZ game the other week as well).

 

[Andy_S]

The kids are 2-0 down at half time after conceding 2 goals in a minute, during the opening 5 minutes.

One eye on the senior games coming up perhaps. :D :'(

 

[Boreham Shrimper]

The kids are 2-0 down at half time after conceding 2 goals in a minute, during the opening 5 minutes.

One eye on the senior games coming up perhaps. :D :'(

Holy **** :scared:

 

[Moody Blues]

Full time Millwall 3 Southend 1

Col Ewe youths lose to St Albans 1-0

 

[C C Csiders]

Duncan out.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I turned up 5 minutes late, having taken the scenic route, to find us already 2-0 down.

[If you are one of the players' parents or loved ones you probably want to skip the rest of this.]

None of the players (at least our ones) looked remotely ready for league football. The pick was probably Lewis Merrick-James (or whatever way round his name is) in midfield. He played pretty deep first half (Maheresque even) in a holding midfield role but at the start of the second half he swapped over with one of the other central midfielders and we had our best spell of the game. However he lacked the stamina, faded badly and didn't feature in the last 15-20 minutes. The kids who partnered him in central midfield were anonymous throughout as Millwall bossed the midfield. The two wingers Okai and Asante didn't see much of the ball, but looked like tricky wingers who weren't particularly tricky when they got a chance to run. Think it was Asante on the left who scored, with a header from a good cross from the right.

The centre-halves are cart-horses - watching them turn can be painful. Both have a somewhat heavy first touch and their positioning leaves a fair bit to be desired. It was however apparently Duran Reynolds' first game of the season, so I should probably cut him some slack (although both looked similarly poor last year when I saw them for the reserves) and hopefully that explains the less than perfect understanding at the back. Both full-backs got skinned at least one. The left-back (name escapes me, is IIRC a first year player) was probably the pick of our defenders, more by default than anything else. But he was still at fault for the 3rd goal when instead of picking out a pass, he blasted a clearance straight at a player and the rebound fell kindly for Millwall to race down the wing, put in a good ball that was somehow trickled in at the far post.

Up front Harry Crawford looks fairly strong (for youth team football) and mobile but has an abysmal touch that suggests that his ceiling is probably be at the top end of park football. We didn't get much of a glimpse of his shooting prowess - his one effort all game looked as if it was deflected, although the ref still gave it as a goal-kick - but he looks as if he might be the type of player who'd have difficulty locating a bovine backside with a banjo.

Overall we started off playing some fairly decent football for the first 10 minutes I saw, with players at least looking comfortable on the ball, but as the game progressed this deteriorated and there were rarely open players, resulting in an inordinate number of backpasses to our keeper, who otherwise didn't have much to do, as Millwall, dominate in the middle of the park, looked comfortable with their 2 goal lead.

Millwall are probably one of the stronger teams at this level, these are all kids who are still learning the game and it was just one view of them, but I'd be surprised if any make it past the development contract stage and make it to the football league (other than because we've only got 10 players).

 

[Mick]

I turned up 5 minutes late, having taken the scenic route, to find us already 2-0 down.

[If you are one of the players' parents or loved ones you probably want to skip the rest of this.]

None of the players (at least our ones) looked remotely ready for league football. The pick was probably Lewis Merrick-James (or whatever way round his name is) in midfield. He played pretty deep first half (Maheresque even) in a holding midfield role but at the start of the second half he swapped over with one of the other central midfielders and we had our best spell of the game. However he lacked the stamina, faded badly and didn't feature in the last 15-20 minutes. The kids who partnered him in central midfield were anonymous throughout as Millwall bossed the midfield. The two wingers Okai and Asante didn't see much of the ball, but looked like tricky wingers who weren't particularly tricky when they got a chance to run. Think it was Asante on the left who scored, with a header from a good cross from the right.

The centre-halves are cart-horses - watching them turn can be painful. Both have a somewhat heavy first touch and their positioning leaves a fair bit to be desired. It was however apparently Duran Reynolds' first game of the season, so I should probably cut him some slack (although both looked similarly poor last year when I saw them for the reserves) and hopefully that explains the less than perfect understanding at the back. Both full-backs got skinned at least one. The left-back (name escapes me, is IIRC a first year player) was probably the pick of our defenders, more by default than anything else. But he was still at fault for the 3rd goal when instead of picking out a pass, he blasted a clearance straight at a player and the rebound fell kindly for Millwall to race down the wing, put in a good ball that was somehow trickled in at the far post.

Up front Harry Crawford looks fairly strong (for youth team football) and mobile but has an abysmal touch that suggests that his ceiling is probably be at the top end of park football. We didn't get much of a glimpse of his shooting prowess - his one effort all game looked as if it was deflected, although the ref still gave it as a goal-kick - but he looks as if he might be the type of player who'd have difficulty locating a bovine backside with a banjo.

Overall we started off playing some fairly decent football for the first 10 minutes I saw, with players at least looking comfortable on the ball, but as the game progressed this deteriorated and there were rarely open players, resulting in an inordinate number of backpasses to our keeper, who otherwise didn't have much to do, as Millwall, dominate in the middle of the park, looked comfortable with their 2 goal lead.

Millwall are probably one of the stronger teams at this level, these are all kids who are still learning the game and it was just one view of them, but I'd be surprised if any make it past the development contract stage and make it to the football league (other than because we've only got 10 players).

Sadly, this looks like a year on year decline in the quality of our youth team for the second year running.