Under-18s manager interviewed after FA Youth Cup win
AFC Wimbledon’s youngsters hit the heights in front of goal last night, but it was not an FA Youth Cup display that earned top marks from Mark Robinson.
When asked for a mark out of 10 for the team’s performance against North Greenford, Mark responded with ‘5 or maybe 6’ after a first-half that he felt was not good enough.
“We prepare hard for games like this in terms of mentality and I did not think in the first-half that the more experienced boys were good enough in terms of leadership,” said Mark. “It was 8-1 and there were some good goals, including well-worked set-pieces, and it would have been more but for their goalkeeper, but you have to look at the bigger picture. No disrespect to North Greenford, but if we do things like that against bigger teams we will get undone.
“We started quite well and got the early goal, which was nice, but I was not happy with the first-half. We over-complicated things. I love rotation and different movements, but we were having too many touches of the ball. Some of our detail was not good enough. We were over-indulgent. We went in 2-0 up at half-time, but I gave them a bit of a rollicking at half-time.”
During the interview which can be viewed on our official You Tube channel via the link above, Mark added that he was pleased with the second-half performances of Reece Williams-Bowers and Nathan Wood.
“Fair play to them in the second-half because they reacted to what I wanted them to do,” Mark said. “We were much better. We still played good football, but it was effective football. We got ourselves in the right areas and players were playing in the positions they should have been. Reece Williams-Bowers started to effect the game the way he should do. But I still had to do too much talking on the touchline and at half-time. That needs to come from within a lot more.
“Reece was dropping too deep in the first-half. He did some good things and Nathan Wood was lively, but I said to him that his end-product has to be better. It was in the second-half and I wanted Reece further up the pitch doing damage. In the second-half he was running them all over the place and opening them up. There were positives, but I always want things to be better. All I am interested in is that the boys keep developing and keep listening because I think there is a lot of talent in there.”
Watch out later on our official You Tube channel for an interview with Reece Williams-Bowers and captain Paul Kalambayi.