The Cheltenham Town Academy Under 18s played Bristol Rovers at the weekend and despite creating a lot of chances and playing well, the young Robins eventually lost 3-1.
FIn Clift, who has worked extremely hard to come back from injury, scored the only goal in what was a very competitive game.
This weekend the U18s travel to play Newport County, followed by Exeter City the following weekend.
It was great for second year scholars George Lloyd and Lee Llewelyn to play for Cheltenham Town Reserves in the mid-week victory over Bournemouth. It was also really good to see youth team products Matt Bower and Josh Thomas perform well – well done to all players!
This week was a very positive week for the youth development phase and definitely a step forward in performance and results. The Under 13s faced the long journey down to Plymouth on Sunday morning. There were four or five stand out players for us who performed really well, but a few too many were under par. Some of this may have been because of the long journey and our young players adjusting to how to prepare their bodies to be ready to play after such a long travel. We created a lot of chances but were punished by the little errors we made defensively and ultimately lost the game.
The Under 14s faced Plymouth at home so were spared the long journey down south for now. The Under 14s haven’t been in the best form of late, but they seemed to have turned a corner after this weekend with a hardworking, hard fought performance that got a win to go with it. This could be the spark this very talented group needs to push on and dominate teams like they have proved they can do in the past and no doubt will do in the future.
The Under 15s had no fixture last weekend and again have no fixture this weekend. We took this opportunity to get the players involved within the other age groups and they have all performed well within these different groups and new environments over the past week.
The Under-16s had another good performance and a great 4-1 win against Bristol Rovers on Saturday. That’s now four wins in our last five league matches and this has been matched by the levels of performance the group have produced. Recently, the boys have been clinical in front of goal - summed up by Isaac Lawrence's wonder strike in this game - and shown great desire and work rate when out of possession. We want to keep this run going and maintain the buzz around the age group. With every passing week, the boys start to come together even more as a unit and develop a greater understanding of one another both on and off the pitch, and we can see the fruit of that cohesion in the performances and the results!
This week sees the Under 13s go on another long journey down to Bournemouth, but they will be much better prepared for this following what they have learned from last week down at Plymouth. The Under 14s play Bournemouth at home which will be another tricky match against good opposition, while the Under 16s are away to Newport on Saturday morning looking to continue their good run of form and make it five wins from six!
Finally, good luck to the first team and the manager in their game against Port Vale at the weekend!