Hull City U21’s 2-1 Birmingham City U21’s

Another Monday night, saw another league game for the U21 side in their quest to push up the table. This time they travelled to Hull City with high hopes after a couple of good displays this season on the road.

According to the official bcfc.com site, the team was:
Blues: Trueman, Baba, Hancox, Adams, Mbende, Harding, Brown (Cotton 59), Solomon-Otabor, Popa (McFarlane 77), Arthur, O’Neill (Truslove 59). Not used: Weaver, Seddon.

Good to see McFarlane back after he completed a successful loan spell with Nuneaton Town recently and this is why there is no McDonald because he has just signed to go on loan with the same team. As always, it was good to see Arthur start as he has a lot of potential but just needs fitness after his recent injury. I’ll be interested to see whether he goes on loan when he is fully fit.

Solomon-Otabor, Harding, Mbende, Hancox, Popa and Brown all could push for a place in the first team in my opinion. After a bit of strength work and integration into the first team, I believe they could all make a massive impact if they were to make the step up.

Despite all of the attacking brilliance that we have in this team, the opening goal came from the defender Wes Harding. A very scrappy corner wasn’t cleared by the Hull City defence which fell perfectly to Harding. He blasted the ball into the goal to give the away side the lead with 20 minutes to go.

Minutes later, Birmingham City should have extended the lead. Arthur had a delightful chance to score after he was released down the centre. With the goal looming and just the goalkeeper to beat, he managed to place the ball high and wide of the goal. A bad miss and it did prove costly.

Ben Hinchcliffe scored the equaliser for the visitors after a decent spell for the home side. Now, despite this, the Blues’ lads tried to create chances but fatigue set in. With just a few minutes remaining Bowen scored the winner to knock the wind out of the away teams sales.

The wind didn’t help throughout the game and hindered any form of passing football which the Birmingham boys would have preferred to do. They must regroup and get back to training in order to win their upcoming fixtures.

Richard Beale in his interview with the official site was very interesting as ever. He says, ‘It’s a lesson for the lads to learn, how to see a game through…’ This is very true. Sometimes sitting back to preserve a lead is not the best option because it means that it invites pressure rather than keeping the ball high up in the oppositions half. If we keep the ball, then they cannot score.

‘We are trying to mould the group into a tougher, stronger unit who can also play football. We are after that strong mentality…better prepared and ready to step into the First Team.’ This is what I like to hear. At this stage it is not about results, although they are nice when you win. It is about developing the attributes and attitudes of these players so that they can graduate into the first team. I like the philosophy of our youth set-up and it is a credit to the club.