Under-18s head coach Greg Crane says he can see the improvement in his side despite a difficult first half of the season in terms of results.
The Under-18s sit bottom of the Premier League South table, having won just one of their 11 league games so far this season. That culminated in a 2-0 loss at home to West Ham United at the Lotus Training Centre on Friday afternoon, before the players are given some well-earned rest during the Christmas period.
However, it was the manner of the performance that pleased Crane as Norwich City started the match superbly, creating a number of chances in the opening 20 minutes before conceding a soft goal from a corner.
“I thought we started really well,” said Greg. “It was a really good, dominant first 20 minutes. We should have taken our chances in those moments to give ourselves a foothold and something to push forward from in the game, so I was disappointed that we didn’t manage to do that when we were on top.
“Then we got done by a set-piece which should be easily avoidable, so that is a bit frustrating and then we kind of switch off from a quick throw-in and didn’t get tight enough in and around the box.
“However, with this group at the minute we are getting fitter, stronger and technically better with every game that we are playing. Everybody is playing. All our players now have played between 18 and 29 games, in terms of players who have stepped across from under-18s to under-23s, so in terms of the first half of the season the results are not great but what we are doing is improving every week.
“Individuals are getting better every week and that is all we can ask from them. I was really proud of the boys because even at the end they were fighting, and they were scrapping. They were trying to get forward and they were trying to create. We just couldn’t in the second half find that little cutting edge to get us in the game because, at 2-1, I felt we could have pushed on even more.”
Speaking about the players' attitude, and a well-earned rest over Christmas, Greg added: “They are an honest group. We have honest chats in our meetings. We don’t tip toe around the facts or some of the horrible stuff we have to talk about and that is on both sides. That is them telling me some things that they are not happy with and me telling them somethings I am not happy with.
“One thing we are big on is the lads being people and having a good Christmas. It is their last day today. They will have a programme to stick to, but we won’t see them again until the third or fourth of January and then we will go into the Crystal Palace game on our first week back. It is important that they go and enjoy their time off as well because it is a gruelling programme, and they need their times to go be humans as well.”