PHILLISKIRK ON THINGS ‘CLICKING’ FOR HIS SIDE AHEAD OF FLEETWOOD FIXTURE

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U18s coach reflected on last Saturday’s win whilst looking ahead to Cods game

2023-09-22T17:00:00.000Z

PHILLISKIRK ON THINGS ‘CLICKING’ FOR HIS SIDE AHEAD OF FLEETWOOD FIXTURE

U18s coach reflected on last Saturday’s win whilst looking ahead to Cods game

2023-09-22T17:00:00.000Z

PHILLISKIRK STILL HAS THE LOVE AFTER 26TH SEASON IN COACHING - Image 2

Tony Philliskirk believes things finally ‘clicked’ for his side in their 6-2 triumph away from home against Queens Park Rangers in the Professional Development League.

A brace from Jack Bates, and goals from Callum West, Zac Johnson, Logan Carlin, and Vernon Masara saw the U18s battle to their first league win of the Professional Development League season.

And Philliskirk thinks it was a case of everything finally coming to fruition for his team as they recorded the huge victory.

He said: “We played well, all of a sudden sometimes in football when you work hard, things just seem to click, and Saturday was one of those days.

“When you consider we conceded a goal after 25 seconds, straight away you're thinking the worst, after a long trip down to QPR the day before.

PHILLISKIRK ON THINGS ‘CLICKING’ FOR HIS SIDE AHEAD OF FLEETWOOD FIXTURE - Image 1

“I was talking to Chris Ramsey, who was the QPR coach, and after six or seven minutes of the game, we should have been 3-1 up.

“Despite being 1-0 down, we were in the ascendancy from the start, and it was a ‘nip and tuck’ first half, and we went into half time at 2-2.

“We looked really dangerous, and we were disappointed at half time to not be ahead, and we were disappointed with the two goals we conceded defensively, but then second half we just kept doing what we were doing, and, in the end, we ran out well deserved winners.”

The Clarets have put out young sides to begin the season, due to injury problems, which has seen many U17s and U16s step up to play above their age group.

Philliskirk stated that some players may have had to make the jump too soon, however he also expressed that that could be a good thing in the long run.

PHILLISKIRK ON THINGS ‘CLICKING’ FOR HIS SIDE AHEAD OF FLEETWOOD FIXTURE - Image 2

He added: “We’re young, and when we went to Bristol City a few weeks ago, I’ll hold my hands up, we were beaten by a far better team on the day.

“But they had 11 U18s playing, and we had seven U17s and an U16 in Corey King playing, so I think sometimes you have to put things into perspective.

“With us it’s a process and we’ve had a few injuries, unfortunately some bad injuries to a few of the second years, so it’s meant that the time that a lot of the first years have got on the pitch has come probably a little bit sooner than some of them were maybe ready for.

“It’s a huge jump from U16s to U18s football but the positive of that is they’re getting exposed really early and I think it’s been a really sharp learning curve for that U17s side, and hopefully going forward that will stand them in good stead.”

Ahead of the next game for the U18s, against Fleetwood Town, Philliskirk is looking for a similar week of preparation and a similar result to the QPR game.

PHILLISKIRK ON THINGS ‘CLICKING’ FOR HIS SIDE AHEAD OF FLEETWOOD FIXTURE - Image 3

He finished by saying: “Training had been good leading up to the Fleetwood game, and the result on Saturday hasn’t just transcended to the performances in game, we’ve really seen better performances in training.”

“When we’ve analysed games, we’ve looked better, despite a few individual mistakes, and being beaten physically in a few games, against Millwall and Bristol City.

“There’s been parts of every game where our principles and our patterns of play and the way we’ve done things has been really good, and that all came to fruition against QPR.

“We’ve had a similar preparation this week in everything we do, and hopefully we can put in a decent performance against Fleetwood on Saturday.”