Andy Melville on United's JPT exit
United bowed out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy after a 2-1 defeat against Portsmouth last night, but there were plenty of positives from an improved performance. Perhaps the biggest boost was the performances of some of the young stars with Callum O’Dowda and Ryan Williams looking good and 19-year-old midfielder Josh Ruffels winning the Man of the Match award on his full debut for the side he supported as a boy.
“Josh has been brilliant since he came in to the club” said Andy Melville,first team coach, after the game. “He is like that in training every day and fully deserved the Man of the Match award. There will be many more to come for him I think.”
“I thought in the first half we had a head of steam, played on the front foot and were really positive. It’s just a shame that we didn’t get a goal at that stage but I thought that the young lads who came into the side did really well and there were plenty of positives. Ryan Williams and Alfie were doing well and running with the ball at them and causing problems so it was a little bit unfortunate that they had to come off and that maybe didn’t help late on when Portsmouth came back into the game.”
United now return to league action as they welcome Northampton Town to the Kassam Stadium on Saturday. With the young players doing so well, Scott Davies impressing in midfield and Andy Whing and Jake Wright both available again as well as the rested Sean Rigg, Dave Kitson and Danny Rose there are plenty of options as the U’s look to climb back into the automatic promotion places:
“We are getting bodies back and if we take the first 45 minutes from last night into Saturday, do that consistently for the full 90 minutes then we will definitely be OK” said Andy.
See a video interview with Ryan Williams plus a full version of the video below, all in Yellow Player.
Tickets are available for Saturday's big game by calling 01865 337533 or visiting www.oufctickets.co.uk