Diaz-Benitez on the mark but young guns lose out
Football League Youth Alliance Merit League
Gillingham 3 Oxford United 1
Thursday 5th March
United’s under 18s were beaten at Gillingham as their Merit League campaign continued with a 3-1 defeat.
Chris Allen told us:
“We played OK and were a little hard done by with the scoreline. We had talked about being strong at the back and making sure we got quality deliveries into the box at the other end and over the 90 minutes I would say we must have had good possession in their final third at least thirty times. But having done that our final ball or cross didn’t find the man often enough.
“Gillingham on the other hand probably only got into dangerous positions four times and scored three times! That’s incredibly frustrating to watch but we need to concentrate at the back and make much more of our chances when we go forward.
“Our goal came from Kieran Diaz-Benitez. He was holding position about 30 yards out and I shouted at him to gamble and get into the box and he timed that really well to meet a right wing cross and score.
“Over all we played pretty well and there was plenty of encouragement but also lots to learn from.”
United
Stevens, Welch-Hayes (Balogun 70), Cundy (F Grant 46), McCormack, C Hawtin, Hastings, Humphries (Cook 65), Diaz-Benitez, Graham, George, Jeacock.