He came so close to scoring a hat-trick last night and even scored from a corner, but Morgan Williams was quick to put the team first after last night’s convincing FA Youth Cup win.
Such a philosophy has been key to a highly impressive run for our Under-18s this season as the 7-0 victory versus Woking made it 10 straight wins since drawing on the opening day against Cambridge.
“We are 10 wins in a row, and undefeated in all competitions this season,” said Morgan. “We have togetherness as a team, and we are trying to develop with the ‘we’ not ‘me’ philosophy. We all work together and we all make the right decisions. We are unselfish, I think that shows with the goals we are scoring. We scored seven goals in front of the fans and it shows how far we can go as a team.
“The fans were brilliant, all the academy lads came along and showed their spirit. We responded to it and we played the football at times in the game that the fans deserved to watch. We were all there to cheer on the Under-18s a few years back! Hopefully, they will have seen what it could be like one day to be in our shoes. It’s great that the academy is so close together and to have everyone there supporting was brilliant.”
Sixteen-year-old Morgan scored from a corner and came so close to a treble with a shot that crashed back off the crossbar. On his flag kick that went straight in off the far post, Morgan said: “It was a front post delivery, but everyone missed it, and the ball just came off the back post and into the back of the net!”
Morgan was called up for a Wales Under-18 squad recently after previously earning international youth honours for his country, but he is concentrating on his club career for now.
“There was supposed to be an international camp in November, but it was cancelled. We had a recent match against England, which we drew 1-1, so it’s going great, but I have to focus on Wimbledon now.”
Despite the emphatic victory, Under-18s manager James Oliver-Pearce stressed that he will keep challenging the squad to get better and better.
“Scoring seven goals was great, but I don’t think we were as ruthless as we could have been. I thought we missed a fair few opportunities in the second-half. In the first 15 minutes after half-time we showed unbelievable intensity, quality, and everything was there, but I felt that when a couple of goals were disallowed the boys were like, ‘when is this goal going to come?’ They kept at it, but I don’t think for the last 15 minutes we were great. I have seen us be a little bit better on a Saturday morning.
“I’m not here to be their biggest fans. My job is to make these boys better and to push them into the first-team and to help them build successful careers. We’ve definitely been more ruthless, made better decisions, and played with more freedom (than last night). In my opinion the players wouldn’t want it any other way: they want me to push them. The minute I stop doing that and become a fan is the time they will stop developing.”
Click on the link below to listen to the full interview with Rob Cornell putting together the questions for Morgan and James.