Reliability the goal for under-18s captain

Alan Connell’s team takes on the Cobblers in the EFL Youth Alliance Cup on Saturday morning (11am kick-off).

The fixture follows back-to-back 2-0 wins for the young Cherries, in the second of which Brown netted, which gave him a welcome boost for his personal targets.

He told afcb.co.uk: “Personally, I want to score more goals than I did last season and try and get to double figures.

“It was really nice to get off the mark and it’s come really early; last season it took me a little while.

“It’s only taken me two games this season, which is really pleasing.”

Brown added: “I also want to get more assists than I did and help the team; to step up and become a player that everyone can rely on.”

His goal came in the victory over Portsmouth at the Cams Alders Stadium, netting first before an own goal wrapped up the points.

The captain felt that as well as playing the conditions on the day, the side’s fitness held a key role.

“The boys played fantastically in hot conditions, because of that the main objective for us was to keep the ball and wear them down,” he explained.

“Ben Bradley works us hard to be the fittest in the league and you could see that in the two goals that we scored.”

With the wind in the under-18s’ sails following a winning start to the campaign, Brown is not losing sight of the gravity of the cup tie.

He said: “It’s a very big game for us because we want to win the cup and we haven’t won it for ages. Last season, we unfortunately lost to Plymouth, who are a very good side.

“We need to perform like we have in the first two games and, hopefully, we can take our chances and score more than two goals.”