International recognition
Under-16 centre forward Phil Roberts has received his first call-up at international level having recently been selected as part of the Republic of Ireland's under-16 squad to take on the Czech Republic later this month.

Phil will be away with the squad in Dublin for five days where he will be available to take part in two friendly matches against the Czech Republic.

Phil has worked hard this season and has already made a couple of appearances for our youth team. He will be keen to impress in Dublin and secure further call-ups in the future. If he applies himself well in training and matches I am sure he will catch the eye of the watching coaching staff.

I would like to congratulate Phil on his achievement and hope he goes on to earn lots more recognition for his country.

FA Youth Cup disappointment
Last week the youth team made the long trip down to Torquay for their second round FA Youth Cup tie. Prior to the fixture we were informed that the winner would host Millwall in the third round of the competition.

We prepared well for the match, travelling to Torquay the day prior to the fixture and spending a short amount of time on the morning of the game running through set-pieces at a local sports facility.

Our performance in the match was well below-par, Torquay scored the only goal of the game direct from a free-kick which was crossed into the box, caught by the wind and misjudged by players of both teams before ending up in our goal without any player touching the ball.

We had chances to equalise but were unable to convert any of them and Jed Steer made some good saves in our goal to keep the score at 1-0.

Myself and the players were very disappointed to go out of the competition at this stage, particularly with the guarantee of a home tie in the next round, but on the night we did not perform to the required level.

I will be looking for a response from the players over the next few games in the Academy League.

Enjoy the game.

Ricky Martin
Academy Manager