BURTON Albion Professional Development Phase Side Lead Coach Keith Gilroy is pleased with the progress the Young Brewers are making after they thrashed Mansfield Town 6-0.
Dylan Scott bagged five goals as Albion ran riot on their last game before Christmas, but Keith Gilroy was most pleased with the excellent defending on display.
He said: “Over the year we’ve always tried to test their resilience as we’ve conceded a lot of poor goals so today I thought we defended really well, and they didn’t give up many chances.
“The message beforehand was 'you have to fight, be resilient in your duels, win your first phase headers, win contacts, win second balls' and I think once you do that you grab a foothold in the game, and I think sometimes in youth football we forget that that’s such an important part of the game.”
Gilroy was also very pleased the ruthlessness Albion showed in front of goal and in particular Dylan Scott after he bagged back-to-back league hattricks.
He added: “We’ve had loads of games this year where we’ve talked to the players about decision making in the final third, when to keep it from the extra pass and when to create a better opportunity.
“And we’ve had a lot of games where we’ve played really well, but the end product is a consistent area where we struggle unless Dylan scores like he did today.
“He just had that knack of scoring and fighting to get goals.”
Finally, in the young Brewers’ last game before Christmas the Lead Coach was keen to point out the improvements being made in the squad throughout the year.
“There’s been some good performances this year with a lot of first year scholars in the group and we’ve had some people going out on loans in the second year, so they’ve come on a lot,” said Gilroy.
“Finn (Delap) has been on loan and so far has had a great experience with Ilkeston and sometimes he’s playing and sometimes he’s not, so it’s important we give him some game time because it’s important for his development to be around us as much as well as getting that experience out on loan.
“All we look for is progression really and we want to see players excel with their own individual ability and try to get a professional contract.
“All we care about is that they're listening and willing to learn and once we see progress in that that’s all we can really ask for."