Oxford United welcome Chelsea Under 21s to the Kassam Stadium on Tuesday evening with Craig Short looking forward to seeing the U’s test themselves against Chelsea’s talented youngsters.
“When I was working with the Academy at Derby these were huge, huge games for us to see where the players were at” he told iFollow. “Chelsea have got a huge pool to choose from and different plans for those players. They have a loan manager there and they will be desperate to see the players in this sort of game.
“But it’s not just Chelsea, it’s also very important for our own youngsters. Some of them have made a contribution already this year and have established themselves in the squad. They have got through any nerves and you don't see the difference in training any more. You do have to get used to it, leaving the youth environment and making that next step, But people like James Golding and Tyler Goodrham have done that.
“They've done a lot of work but I love working with those younger players, that's where I came from.
James was one of those who asked me every day to do some work with him. He gets stronger all the time. He seems to grow every day and he has a lot of ability technically; he's so good at bringing the ball out of defence.
“We've seen that over the last two years before he came through. Rob Dickie was very comfortable in possession, Rob Atkinson moved up to Bristol City having come from non-league.
“James is only just getting started. He’s only 18 years old - I never really made my start in the game til I was 20. But he's got everything and Tyler's fitted in very, very well this year too.
“I like the Papa Johns Trophy because you are playing such different opposition. It doesn't matter what competition, we know we're coming off a good performance on Saturday. We thought we could do better in the final third but we looked good. Having Elliott back made us a little bit calmer, but I’m always a a big fan of his anyway.
“We have played well and then not really built on that after some games this seson. This time we've got to build on it and really get going.”
See the full interview in iFollow.