Coach Alan Connell praised his AFC Bournemouth under-18s after their 4-2 victory over Swindon Town at the Stanley Park Sports Ground despite them having a challenging week and injury woes.
A brace from Christian Saydee and a goal each for Luke Pardoe and James Oliver saw his team battle through difficult weather conditions to earn the three points in the EFL Youth Alliance.
Speaking to afcb.co.uk Connell said: “We showed a good performance, not perfect but a good performance. The character shown was really good, there was a real professionalism shown and there were no excuses.
“Sometimes you have to play in the driving rain and windy conditions and that’s the realism of football, especially in England in the winter months.
“We’ve had a tough week with the Leicester tournament midweek where we used a lot of players who had a lot of minutes and we came back with quite a few injury concerns, so credit goes to our medical team for getting a lot of those boys fit in time.”
The Cherries took a 3-0 lead inside the first half-an-hour but were pegged back to 3-2 before Saydee grabbed the vital fourth goal.
Connell added: “From a team perspective, I thought we started really well. We controlled the game for most of the first half and some of the combination play in the final third was particularly pleasing which enabled us to score three good goals which put us in firm control.
“Towards the end of the first half, we lost our way a little. We got a bit loose in our possession and switched off slightly and, as a result, we got caught on the ball and conceded a free-kick which led to the first goal for them.
“At half-time, I tried to get a few messages across but, unfortunately, we conceded quite quickly. From being in complete control, suddenly, we had a huge challenge on our hands to wrest back that momentum.
“The biggest challenge is when it’s 3-0. With young players, you get the inconsistency and some complacency can creep in, so we try to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“The players are the ones on the pitch making the decisions and it’s up to them to control the game and have the composure in difficult moments, embrace it and see it as a real challenge rather than something to be frightened of.
“We handled it well and it’s another great learning curve for these young players.”
