By Matt Cecil
Blues boss Peter Taylor highlighted the displays of his youngsters as one of the positives in Saturday's 2-1 friendly defeat to Chelmsford City, and has challenged them to maintain their high performance levels as they look to break into the first team during the forthcoming season.
Read the match report here.
The former England Under-21 coach certainly knows a talented youngster when he sees one and was impressed with the trio of Darrell Ellams, Scott Shulton and George Daly as they continued the fine recent string of performances from fellow youngsters Matt Phillips, Jamie Turley and Calum Botham:
"I saw some terrific things from the young lads and I'm really pleased with them so that was one positive from today," he told
wwfc.com exclusively after the game. "Now it's up to them to take their chance; they mustn't get carried away and they need to be able to perform on a regular basis when they get into the team in league matches."
However, the 55-year-old was less happy with the way in which his side conceded the two first-half goals against their Blue Square South opponents and added that the hot conditions, coupled with the fact that his team had also played on the Friday evening, meant that the Blues were not at their strongest:
"Again we've started sloppily and given away two poor goals so it was always going to be uphill. There were some bad individual mistakes and you don't want to do that too much because it knocks confidence out of you and gives it to the other team.
"It was hot today and the lads looked tired last night, let alone today, but that's what pre-season is all about - they need to work hard. It's not about the result today; that only matters when the league starts against Morecambe."
Meanwhile, Taylor revealed that the injury sustained by Scott McGleish in Friday's win at Stevenage Borough was "not as serious as first thought" and he should be ready to lead the attack for the start of the league campaign:
"He's a very important player for us so we'll wrap him up in cotton wool to make sure he's alright," he said.
Wanderers will play two fixtures on Tuesday evening as they send squads to Oxford United and Hayes & Yeading United, both kicking off at 7.45pm, with Taylor looking to give his first-team players more than 45 minutes each.
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