Academy & U21s

[LeftWinger]

Just now, KentExile said:

 

Top finish. 

[LeftWinger]

4 minutes ago, KentExile said:

how did we line up in the first half?

Woodrow central & Dennis wide ?  Both of them central?  one as a 10?

Dennis at 9, Woodrow at 10 I think. 

[Cherry Blue]

2 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Dennis at 9, Woodrow at 10 I think. 

Match fitness now priority. Shame there's only 16 games to play!

Has JE left?

 

[KentExile]

11 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Top finish. 

Wood always looks decent and busy for me, but has struggled for minutes in both the Scottish 3rd tier at Annan and also now on loan at Radcliffe in the National League North.  Will be interesting to see if Mafoumbi gets any game time in the Belgium 2nd tier

Edited February 5 by KentExile

[LeftWinger]

Late winner for Bilbao. Header from a corner.

[LeftWinger]

Mass brawl to finish the game now 😂

[Madon]

27 minutes ago, Cherry Blue said:

Match fitness now priority. Shame there's only 16 games to play!

Has JE left?

 

Eustace stayed.

[bluebruce]

2 hours ago, KentExile said:

Similar in style, but not quite Adam Wharton levels of good, which might mean we can keep him beyond his teens 😉 

To clarify - I am not doing Dunn down in saying he isn't/wont be at Wharton's level, but Wharton was a generational talent, Dunn is still excellent, especially for 16 years old

Did you see Wharton at 16?

[LeftWinger]

14 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Did you see Wharton at 16?

I thought Dunn was excellent when he came on. He sits in front of the back four and is happy playing one or two touch passes. He got exposed a couple of times on the break with his lack of size and pace but you'd think he would improve as he gets older. He's got a great left foot on him and he's a different build to his dad. 

[bluebruce]

So we're out of the competition, Bilbao and Lyon go through. We got 4 points from 4 games and finished 6th in the group, out of 8 teams. Boro were bottom. Bit weird you don't play every team, I think you only play the foreign teams. Match report here:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/february/05/report--rovers-under-21s-1-2-athletic-bilbao-under-21s/

Edited February 6 by bluebruce

[bluebruce]

Incidentally, 3 of the 4 groups were topped by foreign sides. The exception was Brighton who won Group D with 4 straight wins against what I'd expect to be decent sides (Sporting, Sociedad, Anderlecht and Leipzig). That was also the only group that didn't have an English side finish bottom.

Group C was perhaps the strangest outcome, Manure and Liverpool were the bottom 2, and the group was won by FC Nordsjælland, who apparently also have a better U-21s than PSV and Hertha Berlin if the table is to be believed. 3 wins, 1 draw (which was against Fulham who came 2nd).

[arbitro]

Another enjoyable watch once again as both teams knew they had to win and went for it. We had an awful start conceding in the first minute but we kept at it and equalised with an excellent goal. At that stage I felt we had enough to win but credit to Bilbao as they got the winner in stoppage time.

I thought Aodhan Doherty was very good on the night and Matty Litherland out in his usual no nonsense defensive display but, unusually for a modern day centre half he is prepared to carry the ball forward and look for a killer pass. Ribeiro was the best of the three new signings for me with Dennis looking at times that he needed a ball of his own to play with. I was surprised to see Woodrow dropping so deep at times but mostly he was tidy in possession.

The real disappointment on the night for me was the play acting of the Spaniards. The squealing and rolling about after most challenges was grating and this was exacerbated by a weak referee who fell for it.

[KentExile]

9 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Did you see Wharton at 16?

Yes, and (albeit from a smaller sample size, and at at a lower level), he stood out more than Dunn for me (again, this is no dig at Dunn, I think he will be a fantastic player, I just saw more in Wharton),   

I will add the caveat that Dunn is a semi regular in the U21s at 16, Wharton wasn't, but I think this is more down to them coming through at different times, under different hierarchies, rather than  being an indication on their ability

Edited February 6 by KentExile

[KentExile]

report from last night

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/february/05/report--rovers-under-21s-1-2-athletic-bilbao-under-21s/

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

35 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Another enjoyable watch once again as both teams knew they had to win and went for it. We had an awful start conceding in the first minute but we kept at it and equalised with an excellent goal. At that stage I felt we had enough to win but credit to Bilbao as they got the winner in stoppage time.

I thought Aodhan Doherty was very good on the night and Matty Litherland out in his usual no nonsense defensive display but, unusually for a modern day centre half he is prepared to carry the ball forward and look for a killer pass. Ribeiro was the best of the three new signings for me with Dennis looking at times that he needed a ball of his own to play with. I was surprised to see Woodrow dropping so deep at times but mostly he was tidy in possession.

The real disappointment on the night for me was the play acting of the Spaniards. The squealing and rolling about after most challenges was grating and this was exacerbated by a weak referee who fell for it.

In our village in Spain they have an inter bars competition every Summer. It’s 7 a side on a roughly 3/4 full size. When I first went along to watch I was expecting a lot of play acting. I was really surprised that it was just like when I played. Blokes flying into tackles like their lives depended on it. Very little rolling around etc. The one lad who is an actor was on Granada’s books for a while.

Maybe it’s what they learn when they join pro clubs.

[unleaded]

Rudy Gestede needs to look at a new under 21 coach … Mike Sheron has been poor this season …Too many losses especially earlier in the season by massive margins …. 

[Exiled_Rover]

4 hours ago, arbitro said:

Another enjoyable watch once again as both teams knew they had to win and went for it. We had an awful start conceding in the first minute but we kept at it and equalised with an excellent goal. At that stage I felt we had enough to win but credit to Bilbao as they got the winner in stoppage time.

I thought Aodhan Doherty was very good on the night and Matty Litherland out in his usual no nonsense defensive display but, unusually for a modern day centre half he is prepared to carry the ball forward and look for a killer pass. Ribeiro was the best of the three new signings for me with Dennis looking at times that he needed a ball of his own to play with. I was surprised to see Woodrow dropping so deep at times but mostly he was tidy in possession.

The real disappointment on the night for me was the play acting of the Spaniards. The squealing and rolling about after most challenges was grating and this was exacerbated by a weak referee who fell for it.

I'm sure it's not in the rules, but I'd love a referee to give a freekick because a player has gone down holding their body part like it's been blown off by a landmine (and screamed) - only to reverse the decision and book said player when they quickly jog back into play once the decision has gone their way.

It's cheating and should be punished as such. 

[Exiled_Rover]

15 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

Ribeiro is very similar to Pickering.

I've liked Atcheson so far. I've not seen him before.

Significantly faster, I hope. 

[Exiled_Rover]

19 minutes ago, unleaded said:

Rudy Gestede needs to look at a new under 21 coach … Mike Sheron has been poor this season …Too many losses especially earlier in the season by massive margins …. 

How strong is the U21 team though and what's the purpose of it?

Seems to me like we've got A LOT of players out on loan in the hopes that half a season / a season of men's football will season them up better than playing in the U21s. Lots of U18s turning out for the U21s too. 

With no promotion / relegation we seem to have shifted focus and got rid of those 22/23 year olds who were never going to make it at Rovers, but were probably a little too good / consistent to be playing U21 football. 

[arbitro]

3 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I'm sure it's not in the rules, but I'd love a referee to give a freekick because a player has gone down holding their body part like it's been blown off by a landmine (and screamed) - only to reverse the decision and book said player when they quickly jog back into play once the decision has gone their way.

It's cheating and should be punished as such. 

I lost count of the number of times they went down and squealed holding various parts of their anatomy. Despite this their physio only came on once to treat a player who was genuinely hurt. There was a comical moment in the second half when one of their strikers went down like he had stepped on a land mine. Matty Litherland was clearly annoyed at his antics and as he lay on the ground Litherland stood over him and had a go at him. Whatever Litherland said of did worked because the Spaniard miraculously jumped up and ran after Litherland in a Lazarus like act.

Frankly it was embarrassing

[KentExile]

Highlights & Woods goal from last night

 

Edited February 6 by KentExile

[bluebruce]

/\ I just came here to post that. If you go off highlights alone, which may be massively club-biased, it looks like we should have won that game comfortably.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

18 hours ago, bluebruce said:

/\ I just came here to post that. If you go off highlights alone, which may be massively club-biased, it looks like we should have won that game comfortably.

I was just thinking how did we lose that game? We had enough chances to win two games.

[KentExile]

U18s hammered Newcastle 5-1 (who included Finneran in their starting lineup) at their place

U21s lost 3-1 at home to Man City

Edited February 8 by KentExile

[Cherry Blue]

1 hour ago, KentExile said:

U18s are away to Newcastle (who include Finneran in their starting lineup) at 12:30 

U21s at home to Man City at 1pm

Dunn playing & Litherland on bench.