AFC Bournemouth
The under-21s put in an assured winning performance as they beat Aldershot Town 4-0 away in a friendly on Saturday.
Goals from Sam Sherring, Keelan O'Connell, Kyle Taylor and Luke Nippard did the damage against the first team of the National League Shots, in the under-21s' latest game against men's opposition.
After the match, manager Shaun Cooper spoke with afcb.co.uk about his pleasure at the result and improved performance.
"The challenge for the day was to take the lessons from the last game and deliver an improved performance, and the lads did that," he said.
"The defenders squeezed the line well, we passed the ball better, pressed better, delivered a really good well-rounded performance and could have scored more goals.
"In truth Aldershot played into our hands at times, they tried to pass the ball out from the back and we stopped them doing that, recovered the ball and that led to chances and goals."
Earlier in the week Cooper's side had lost 3-0 at Torquay United, with the manager looking at the pre-season build-up to see development in his side.
"The improvement was a case of it being early in the season," said Cooper. "Pre-season games are for getting your fitness back but also getting your game sharpness and your mental awareness back. It reminds you of the things required to win football matches.
"There was still a physical directness in Aldershot's play, particularly early in the match and they hit the post when it was still 0-0. Once we found our feet I felt we matched them physically when they did go direct and won a lot of first contacts and second balls.
"We didn't let them build any momentum in any way, shape or form and when they did try to pass we pressed so well that we didn't allow them to do so.
"Our movement up front was very intelligent, Kyle Taylor played as a number ten and he was very fluid, our other attacking players reacted off him very well and when we got into them we looked very threatening."
