Hoban and Hawtin on the mark for the U's
United’s Development side staged a comeback but were beaten 3-2 by Aston Villa in a friendly this afternoon.
United took the chance to give senior players some match time and it was striker Patrick Hoban who got them back into the game before young full-back Charlie Hawtin made it 3-2 towards the end of a game that the U’s has been 3-0 down in.
Coach Chris Allen told us:
“Sometimes you talk about a game of two halves but this was more like 60 minutes to 30. The first half wasn’t good enough, we were sluggish and it looked as though some people had not prepared themselves properly and weren’t ready for the game. That is a valuable lesson for young players and against a good side like Villa it cost us because we were 2-0 down by half time. They pressed us and forced errors.
It was 3-0 before the hour and then we came back into it. AJ George, James Roberts and Sam Humphreys gave us a bit of pace and urgency. We got back into it when Ryan Taylor did well and crossed for Pat who finished well for 3-1. Then Freddie Grant got forward and crossed for Charlie Hawtin to make it 3-2.
“It was much better in that last half hour but you have to be at it from the first whistle and that gives us something we can work on.”
United
Stevens, A Hawtin, Cundy, Dunkley, Grant, Ashby (Humphreys), Ruffels, Lundstram, Trialist (C Hawtin), Hoban (Roberts), Taylor (George)