Young U's held in friendly
A very young United side drew 0-0 with the Nike Academy in a specially arranged friendly at St George’s Park, Burton, this afternoon.St George’s Park is the new National Football Centre and offers fantastic training and residential facilities for all teams including all of the England national squads. It was the first time that a United side have visited and the U’s battled hard against a Nike Academy side made up of a number of young players who have been offered a chance to show what they can do after being released by professional sides.
United used the game to look at four trialists, plus scholars Miles Welch-Hayes, Robbie Cundy, Cian McCormack and AJ George. First-year pros Aidan Hawtin and Sam Humphreys provided the width, while John Campbell led the line - the only player in the side with a first-team appearance to his name so far.
It was a decent game of passing football, played on a first-class pitch, but as Micky Lewis told us, the only thing missing was a little composure in front of goal from both sides.
“It was a highly entertaining 0-0 draw,” Micky said. “I know that sounds strange to some people but the football was really good to watch and on another day we would have converted at least two or three of the great chances we created.
“We looked really sharp but their keeper played well and we didn’t beat him with a number of one-on-one situations where we should have done better.
“Credit to the Academy lads we were up against. It’s good to see them getting a chance to impress and they did well, but it was also a very worthwhile game for us. Our young lads did very well, we had a look at a few trialists in a match situation and I think it was good for us to come and take a look around St George’s first hand. It really is a great environment to play football.”
United
Trialist, Welch-Hayes, Cundy, McCormack, Trialist, Trialist (Humphries 75), George, Trialist (Hayden 75), A Hawtin, Campbell, Humphreys